Wendell Berry's essay, 'The Pleasures of Eating,' is a brief argumentative piece
examining the complacency of the every day urban consumer and the deterioration of the
American food industry as a whole. Written in the early nineties, this essay attempts to
convince the audience to be a responsible eater; not just a passive consumer. The author
does so through complete use of the rhetorical triangle. This essay is completely
successful because every aspect of the rhetorical triangle was successfully utilized to
bring the audience to eat responsibly.

The first aspect of the rhetorical triangle we see in the essay is the author drawing
on his situated ethos. That is Wendell Berry being a passionate, well-known
environmental activist, who over the years has urged people to be more proactive in the
way they eat through essays, books, and lectures. He wishes people to be more educated
on where food comes from, how it is cultivated, and local agricultural economics. While
he exemplifies his situated ethos well, he seems to neglect establishing an invented ethos.
He appears to rely only on his situated ethos. He exemplifies this situated ethos in the
first sentence, 'Many times, after I have finished a lecture on the deadline of American
farming and rural life' ' (Berry 124). Just by mentioning he is a teacher of the subject he
is now writing on greatly serves him as a writer. By only portraying himself as the
teacher and activist he is very much benefits his cause. Many writers establish an
invented ethos to become more appealing to the reader. Berry lets his true colors and
wisdom earn the people's respect and trust. Therefore this use of situated ethos is very
effective in gaining the audience's trust and allows them to be more willing to listen to
and believe what he's about to say. Therefore, this is excellent use of ethos helps him
succeed in making people more responsible eaters.

His most powerful use of the rhetorical triangle is without doubt is pathos. He
uses his talents to woo the audience to inspire feelings of independence and freedom from
the food industry. Early in the essay we see this, 'But we have neglected that we cannot
be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the
passive consumer is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live
free,' (Berry 125). By making the audience feel that they are being controlled inspires
feelings rebellion and a desire to break free. This is the same type of emotion that caused
our ancestors to declare freedom from Britain. Therefore, I believe it is fair to say that
these emotions would then be enough to cause Americans to break free from the
country's food industry. Especially since this essay was written for Americans: we as a
people are very proud of our freedom in every aspect and will do anything to protect it.
Therefore, this particular emotion that Berry chose to evoke from the reader is a very
powerful use of pathos.

This is not the only example of pathos, though. There is a strong presence of
enargeia as well. Berry spends a paragraph describing, in detail, the despicable aspects of
the food industry. '' the hamburger she is eating came from a steer who spent much of
his life standing deep in his own excrement in a feedlot, helping to pollute the local
streams, or that the calf that yielded the veal cutlet on her plate spent its life in a box in
which it did not have room to turn around. And, though her sympathy for the slaw might
be less tender, she should not be encouraged to meditate on the hygienic and biological
implications of mile-square fields of cabbage, for vegetables grown in huge monocultures
are dependent on toxic chemicals'just as animals in close confinements are dependent
on antibiotics and other drugs,' (Berry 126). Now not only does the audience already
dislike the food industry for trying to control them, but now they have a reason to dislike
them for mistreating animals, polluting their water, and making their food, both animal
and plant, chemically toxic. This evokes resentment from the audience, placing the reader
in a spot where they now want to rebel against something they hate. The placement of
these emotional appeals is sublime. At this point the reader should down right hate the
food industry and anymore emotional appeals and they might snap. That is the point
though. With each emotional appeal Berry creates, he moves the reader further and
further onto his side. They are as good as puddy in his hand, they want to listen and
believe what he has to say. All he must do now is present them with logical reasons to
truly eat responsibly. They have the emotional drive, now they just need reasoning to use
it.

And Berry delivers with the reasoning too. From the beginning of the essay he
argues deductively with rhetorical reasoning. Starting broadly speaking of the issues with
food industry itself and then narrowing focus on what the individual can to do to become
a more responsible consumer. He presents the audience with a list of ideas on how they
do this. '1. Participate in food production' 2. Prepare your own food' 3. Learn the
origins of the food you buy' 4. Whenever possible, deal with local farmers directly' 5.
Learning, in self-defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of
industrial food production' 6. Learn what is involved in the best farming and
gardening' 7. Learn as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if
possible, of the life histories of the food species,' (Berry 127). In most pieces of writing
the author would necessarily present his logos so obviously, but in this case it very
appropriate. It goes along with his rhetorical reasoning strategy. By providing the
audience with a step-by-step list of ways they can become responsible eaters he has given
them the solution to the fundamental problems stated about the food industry. This blend
of deductive and rhetorical reasoning placed after the strong stimulation of the audience's
sense of freedom and American pride makes for a very effective use of the rhetorical
triangle. His well thought out technique sets up the audience to follow him into being a
responsible eater and therefore gives him success.

This was written in nineties but even today this essay could still have profound
meaning and create a responsible eater out of the reader. People should take more care in
what and how they eat. We are apart of a vast and infinite of networks of connections
between us and the world around us, as Berry preached. So when we choose to 'eat
irresponsibly' we hurt the world around us as well as ourselves. That was the message
Berry wanted to stick with the reader, eat responsibly. And with his use of the rhetorical
triangle he crafted an essay that more than succeeded that goal, creating more responsible
eaters with every read.
