'The Pleasures of Eating' by Wendell Berry is a chapter from one of his books that is
about why people, as consumers of agriculture, should participate in its process. Berry makes
claims that people are eating without knowing what exactly is in their food, like eating animals
that are loaded with steroids and held in small cages with hardly any room to stand. He says that
it detracts from the joy of eating and that to really enjoy your food you should know it from seed
to meal. Being a farmer himself, Berry is knowledgeable of the requirements to grow food, eat it,
and sell it and has taken it upon himself to try to educate the public.

Since Berry is not just a farmer himself, but his parents were also farmers, he would be
considered a reliable source on topics related to agriculture. However, in this particular excerpt,
Berry does not claim his farmer side. He starts off his chapter with 'Many times, after I have
finished a lecture on the decline of American farming and rural life' ' (Berry, 1989 p 124)
which suggests that Berry is a teacher rather than a farmer. I believe he takes this stance to
express two things: A position of authority as a teacher and an unbiased point of view by not
bringing to light that, at this point, he had been farming for 24 years. Perhaps his students knew,
but by simply reading this excerpt, a reader would not know unless they did some research. From
this vantage point, Berry can put forth information and the general public will accept what he
says simply because of how he presents himself.

Berry does not waste time in building his argument. His first paragraph describes what he
believes is how the general populace sees themselves in the agricultural process ' as consumers.
'If they think beyond that, they recognize that they are passive consumers', says Berry (1989, p
124). People buy what they want for however much it costs and do not think twice about what it
is they are actually buying. How was the food grown? What additives were put into it? How
much are those additives costing you? Berry believes these are important questions because these
are factors in how the grocery stores determine their price. To go even further - the type of farm,
where it is located, and any hardships that particular farm may encounter while raising the crop
or animal also affects the food quality and price. Berry tells us that these are not things we think
of as we pick and choose our products off the grocery shelf.

Berry seems to believe that we do not think very much. He believes that people have
become more dependent upon large corporations now than before; 'before' being when people
used to create their own ways of entertainment and sustenance or creating their own product to
fit their needs. 'This is certainly true also of patrons of the food industry, who have tended more
and more to be mere consumers ' passive, uncritical, and dependent' (Berry, 1989 p 125). This
is an important point for Berry. Throughout the rest of the writing, he urges people to become
independent, on some level, when it comes to agriculture. He believes that large corporations
have convinced the general population that already prepared food is better than preparing it
yourself. Here is another point in which his established perspective ' a teacher, rather than a
farmer - is very effective. Berry also tweaks his perspective to something perhaps more
persuasive ' an enlightened consumer.

Almost resembling the founding fathers as a revolutionary thinker, Berry begins to really
push that we, as consumers, are being lead like cattle in the direction food producers want us to
move in. We buy what they determine we need and we do it willingly in hope of achieving our
'dream home,' as Berry puts it. 'The current version of the 'dream home' of the future involves
'effortless' shopping from a list of available goods on a television monitor and heating
precooked food by remote control' (Berry, 1989 p 125). Of course, this is not always necessarily
the case, but you can see the point Berry is trying to make ' remaining ignorant of agricultural
processes can only limit us in our freedom and make us completely dependent on what a few
people in collard suits believe is best for us. This would violate any real freedom we have and, as
a free people, should encourage us to act in defense of that freedom and participate in the
economy and politics of food. This was an attempt on Berry's part to incite a kind of rebellious
action in the readers. As American's, we strive to be free in our lives; why willfully give up your
freedom to eat what you want to those that would have you eat what they want you to eat?

'There is, then, a politics of food that, like any politics, involves our freedom,' says
Berry (1989). '...we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its
sources are controlled by someone else' (p. 125). Again, Berry is making a revolutionary point '
someone is controlling our freedoms when we, ourselves, can do it better and cheaper. Berry is
attempting to incite a trapped feeling into the reader. He is trying to say 'You think you are free,
but you are not. Do something about it.' Berry is thinking here that anyone who has ever cooked
knows how easy it is to make even a basic meal and how, for the same price or cheaper than you
would pay at a restaurant, a person can make their own meal of equal sustenance. As well, they
will understand how much work went in to preparing the meal and will appreciate it more. This
use of pathetic proof is an attempt to instill a revelation-like feeling ' 'Why am I paying this
much for the same thing I can get at home?'

Berry accepts that agriculture and cooking is not easy to squeeze into a busy schedule;
but he does believe it is possible and that corporations are trying to hide that fact. They hide it
behind the beautiful actors and models that they use in advertisement. 'If one gained one's whole
knowledge of food from these advertisements (as some presumably do), one would not know
that the various edibles were ever living creatures, or that they all come from the soil, or that they
were produced by work' (Berry, 1989 p 125). Berry is talking about the McDonald's
commercials that have gorgeous people eating gorgeous looking food. Has a cheeseburger ever
looked that perfect when it came from behind the actual counter? No ' this is done to persuade
the viewer into buying their food by making it look more appealing than the actual product.
Furthermore, the chances of that 'beef' patty being actual 'beef' are pretty low and, if it actually
has beef in it, it is probably altered in some way. However, if we were to grow our own food,
Berry suggests, we can gain several insights into the food that we are eating; how it was grown,
where it was grown, what pesticides or chemicals it was treated with (if any). Entertain the idea,
even if you do not believe Berry, in which someone accepts his ideas and wants to participate;
how would they go about participating in agriculture in a way that can affect the process?

Berry does not suggest that everyone pick up a farm. No, though that is ideal, he suggests
that we simply participate to the extent that we can. 'If you have a yard or even just a porch box
or a pot in a sunny window, grow something to eat in it' (Berry, 1989 p 127). Cook or prepare
that food yourself. If you cannot grow it yourself, buy locally. Purchasing local foods supports
local farmers and the goods are typically fresher since there is little time between being grown
and being consumed. Furthermore, dealing with a local farmer eliminates third party vendors that
may alter the food some way. Berry goes on to suggest that we 'learn, in self-defense, as much
as [we] can of the economy and technology of industrial food production' (Berry, 1989 p 127).
This way you have a better idea as to what is added to foods you do not grow yourself and how
much that additive is costing you. The last two things Berry mentions we can do is to learn what
is involved in the best farming and gardening practices and to learn about the life histories of the
food species you are purchasing. These things will allow a person, according to Berry, to better
understand the process of actual farming as opposed to mass production farming.

The suggestions Berry brings up are not ones that require someone to own a whole farm
and devote their life to farming. Rather, he connects to the readers by giving realistic suggestions
on how to, at a minimal level, participate in agriculture. To do this, Berry utilizes deductive
rhetorical reasoning. He began the article explaining the big picture of agriculture and then
moved to how we, as individuals and not just consumers, can participate in the process.
However, now that Berry has asked the readers to gain knowledge about their food, he cautions
them that they will inevitably learn something they did not want to know. Even Berry has a hard
time eating poultry or red meat when he is 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' (Berry, 1989
p 127). He acknowledges the fact that we are not always able to eat things we grow and that
there are horrible happenings on production farms to the animals harvested for food. However,
even if a person raises his own cattle on an open field, eventually it will die. He can either be the
dealer of death and eat the animal or let it live its whole life. Berry suggests that this adds to the
pleasure of eating since the person knew the animal on some higher level other than paying some
amount of money for it to be prepared, stored, and reheated at a restaurant.

In the end, Berry simply asks that we try to participate in agriculture on some basic level.
He leaves his list of ways to contribute and does not try and shove the ideas down our figurative
throats. He relates contributing to being a way to educate and free ourselves from corporations
who want to control what we eat. Connect to the world we live in; contribute to it in some way -
these are basic concepts to living a full and pleasurable life.
