The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry demonstrates an argument on how American
food consumers during the 1980's did not show much appreciation of natural and humane
sources of food production and food consumption. He also argues the notion that Americans did
not fully understand the 'pleasures' of eating food. In my own opinion, Wendell Berry's
argument is made very effectively and will be evaluated through the use of rhetorical proofs.

Wendell Berry explains the effectiveness of his argument through the rhetorical proof
logos, in an inductive way. He shows his argument is inductive by saying, 'Life is not very
interest, and we seem to have decided. Let its satisfactions be minimal, perfunctory, and fast. We
hurry through our meals to go to work and hurry through our work in order to 'recreate'
ourselves in the evenings and on weekends and vacations' .. For what? To eat the billionth
hamburger at some fast-food joint hell-bent on increasing the 'quality' of our life' (Berry.
Pg.125)? He expresses life in such a fashion that it is not interesting, the satisfaction of eating
turns into a 'routine' rather than experiences we can enjoy. He also explains that our 'routine'
eating experiences not only beg the question of 'recreation' of ourselves but is there an increase
in the quality of our life by eating like this.

Wendell Berry uses different types of reasoning to address his argument. He uses
dialectical, false, and rhetorical reasoning separately and in conjunction with each other to
further explain his argument. One way he leads off his essay is by using false reasoning by
explaining what happened to rural America and answering a question from a student that asked,
'...after I have finished a lecture on the decline of American farming and rural life, someone in
the audience has asked, 'what can city people do?' I answered, 'eat responsibly' (Berry. Pg.124).
Assuming he knows some students he teaches are inner city, he gives the answer to the question
that seems 'generally' true about eating while on a diet that is not rich in 'fresh' nutrients
because the inner city doesn't have adequate access to the fresh food that he has. He gives a lot
more false reasoning geared towards how a majority average people are described as 'passive'
consumers that would eat and not question how the food is prepared, stored, transported, and
even packaged. They just eat and go on about their day that will not think that the food industry
has done the community as disservice by persuading us that having prepackaged food is good
and healthy for people, and resulting to not cooking the food cleanly enough, using dangerous
chemicals to preserve it so we can have a convenient meal.

While he uses a great amount of his essay using false reasoning to help explain his
argument, he also combines dialectical and rhetorical reasoning to help readers understand that
they need to take ownership of their actions and worry about what they put into their bodies. He
brings up that fact that we as people can be easily swayed or volunteered to enter the trap of
industrialism for food, but that people can voluntarily free themselves from the trap by,
'reclaiming responsibility for one's own part in the food economy. One might begin with the
illuminating principle of Sir Albert Howard's The Soil and Health, that we should understand
'the whole problem of health in soil, plant, animal, and mans as one great subject.' Eaters must
understand that eating' . Is an inescapable agricultural act, and how we eat determines, to a
considerable extent, how we use our world' (Berry. Pg.126). He gives the reader a way out by
letting them know based on an important principle that eating isn't a routine thing we do every
day, it is a pleasurable experience we should not take lightly. Then if we do not take control of
our food economy we cannot use our world's resources in a pleasurable experience or useful
way. He then ties this dialectical reasoning to rhetorical reasoning by connecting people and how
they can see eating as an agricultural act, and people can see eating as a complex relationship in
which one can grow and prepare their food and enjoy their food and live a healthy lifestyle. He
gives the reader a list of seven steps to help one liberate them self from the trap and gain useful
knowledge to pass on.

Though we see Wendell Berry as an activist for a healthier and old school way of eating,
he also is a farmer, conservative, and teacher that utilizes ethos, and in particular situated ethos
to aid his character to the audience he wanted to help. He utilizes situated ethos by referring to
his days of teaching to students talking about decline of American farming and rural life. He
goes on to say, 'I have finished my lecture on the decline of American farming and rural life,
someone in the audience asked, 'What can city people do?' I answered, 'eat responsibly,''
(Berry. Pg.124). Obviously, as a teacher he would give a lecture to students about more than just
the decline of farming in American. He would also give lectures on how farming got started in
America and chronological events that would have lead up to a decline of farming and rural life.
He also uses his knowledge of farmer and being a farmer to inform his audience about eating and
describing how eating is a cycle. He talks to his audience about cycle as, 'eating is an
agricultural act. Eating ends the annual drama of the food economy that begins with planting and
birth. Most eaters however, are no longer aware that this is true' (Berry. Pg. 124). Berry knows
that most eaters these days eat routinely and don't revere eating as an experience, when they
really should see eating as an act of agriculture because foods come from farming hands, seeds
that were planted, and grew up from the ground and sprouted into a delicious delicacy. He talks
about eating as a cycle by referring to the food economy, planting, and birth. Berry knows that
when someone farms food that though the end of the 'food train' is controlled by the food
economy, but starts with someone (farmer) who knows how to plant a seed and watch the seed
be born into something that can be eaten.

Berry is also a conservative, which makes seem 'old school' or outdated to most of his
audience, because conservative thinkers have a social philosophy that retains traditional ways of
culture and civilization. He demonstrates his conservative views referring to people in his
audience as, 'they think of themselves as 'consumers.' If they think beyond that, they recognize
that they are passive consumers' Most urban shoppers would tell you that food is produced on
farms. But most them do not know what farms, or what kinds of farms, or where the farms are,
or what knowledge of skills are involved in farming' (Berry. Pg.124). Conservative thinkers
would believe in the notion of bare bones agriculture that has no such interference from
industrial hands. Conservatives know that if industrial hands are touching farming views then
people in particular urban people will be persuaded to eat what is easy to prepare and eat while
filling up the pockets of the industrial food companies. And since most urban people have no
knowledge of farm life they have a hard time appreciating what farm life is and what it does to
fuel the industrial food economy.

Knowing that he has some limitation in his situated ethos Berry optimizes his chances of
getting his argument across to his audience by using his invented ethos to cover up his perceived
'negative' views from his audience. Berry's main selling point his is conservative mindset in
most this essay and realizing this could be his downfall, does a few things to not down play the
industrial food economy, urbanization of shopping, and how we eat. He also gently points us in a
similar direction that is familiar to his conservative views without telling his audience to go and
change everything you know about industrialization and never buy or eat like you want to. He
does these few things by one letting consumers know they need to be aware of their spending
and well-being by asking questions so they can make informed decisions about purchases. He
also gives his audience this list of seven ideas to consider when thinking about how people can
liberate themselves of from an industrial trap and hopefully live a healthier lifestyle. These seven
things are, 'participate in your own food production, prepare your own food, learn the origins of
the food you buy, deal with a local farmer, learn self-defense of the economy and technology,
learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening, and learn as much as you can from
direct observation and experience' (Berry. Pg.127). If consumers choose to follow these seven
steps then they can start off on the right foot to regaining their own responsibility in their health,
purpose in the economy, and transforming themselves into more aware and proactive people in
America.

Pathos is the final proof that Wendell Berry uses to his advantage to relate to his audience
and their own emotions of his argument. How Berry reaches out and responds to his audiences
emotions and desires is by relating them on a sub-par level that isn't so perfected but justifiable
because he like others wants his food to be pleasurable and enjoyable. He relates to them by
saying, 'For anyone who knows something about modern food history, eating away from home
can be a chore. My inclination is to eat seafood instead of red meat or poultry when I am
traveling. Though I am by no means a vegetarian, I dislike the thought that some animal has been
made miserable in order to feed me. He wants his audience to know that he also isn't this perfect
eater but he take some precautions like most others and abides by them until he is in control of
his eating. Berry also uses this idea of enargeia to bring to life emotions that can connect with his
audience. He does this by describing, 'the pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not
that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and
know that the garden is healthy and remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the
dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with
the food and is one of the pleasures of eating' (Berry. Pg.128). He describes how one that knows
gardening and how beautiful it is to tend to one, see how they grow, and engrain in their mind a
memory that can be as enjoyable as eating the vary food one has grown for themselves.

Wendell Berry knows his audience has some anger and shame about this issue because
their unaware mindset on how the food economy works. He also expects his audience to feel
confused on how they can correct their 'mistake' in not being more aware, so he gives his
audience several tools they can use. Berry does an excellent job in convincing his audience of a
view that isn't negative or bias in one or another using ethos, logos, and pathos, but giving his
audience a way to critically think about what they can do to be more aware and proactive when
they want have the pleasures of eating.

