Often times when someone reads an article, they do nothing to change their ways of life in response.  However, with the right kinds of words and appeals, an article can quickly turn into a piece that actually captures the audience's interest and causes a change.  In "The Pleasures of Eating", the author, Wendell Berry, does so when reflecting on the issues of modern American agriculture and what it would mean to eat more responsibly and actively.  Berry provides a convincing argument through appealing to her readers' emotions and values, taking her argument to a more personal level, and incorporating logos and ethos to bolster her claim.

Reaching out to her audience's emotions, Berry brings up negative aspects on both farm animals and consumers of the industrialized food industry.  First off, she goes straight for a standard American value  --  freedom  --  to get an emotional reaction out of her readers.  When talking about food industrialists, Berry exaggeratingly notes "that they do not yet offer to insert it, prechewed, into our mouth is only because they have found no profitable way to do so" (Berry 535).  Even with stretching the actual actions of the industrialists, she does point out the selfishness and abuse that these people show.  In making such a statement, she causes readers to feel taken advantage of and upset at this reality.  She evokes a feeling of violation, perhaps anger in her readers, successfully making them more inclined to listen to her claim since it so directly affects them.  After this more personal appeal to emotions, she moves on to bring up the injustice of the lives of some farm animals.  In discussing the disconnect between food and actual farming, she mentions the heinous ways of living some farm animals must go through.  Giving a few examples, "a steer who spent much of his life standing deep in his own excrement ... , or that the calf that yielded the veal cutlet ... spent its life in a box in which it did not have room to turn around" (Berry 536), the author provides a picture of what some consumers actually have on their plates.  Getting this imagery in their mind then provokes an emotional reaction from the readers  -- whether sadness for the animals, or resentment for their owners.  She then later provides a dramatic contrast between the pictures of industrial farming and natural farming.  In portraying more natural farming, she uses phrases such as "pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors", "bountiful pasture", and "happily and healthily in good soil" (Berry 538).  This gives the image of a happy, picture-perfect scene of how farm life should look like and where food products should come from.  However, when providing the example of the opposite  --  industrial farming  --  she presents it to look "more like a concentration camp" (Berry 538).  In bringing up a horrible place such as a concentration camp, she tries to make readers understand how horrible these farms are and really reaches out to their emotions.  In using such a phrase, she brings only feelings of horror mingled with sadness to mind, perfectly getting her point of the contrast across.  By painting such a harsh, but very well true, picture of reality, Berry only further maintains the emotional attentions of her readers.  In referencing consumers' own injustices and values infringed upon, as well as animal and farm abuse, Berry uses pathos to appeal to the audience's emotions in order to keep them invested in her then effective argument.

Going further, the author elevates her points to a more personal level; developing a specific call-to-action for the readers, and bringing in her more intimate experiences and thoughts on eating "pleasurably".  In starting to close up her argument, Berry does not stop at just the regular author's call-to-action, but rather puts together a whole list for how her readers can take her points to heart to change the way they consume food.  In order to eat more responsibly, she suggests seven extensive ways that in sum entail becoming a part of the food process as much as possible, learning the ways of it, how best to do so, and getting food from more direct sources.  She describes growing one's own food as "the beautiful energy cycle that revolves from soil to seed to flower to fruit to food to offal to decay, and around again" (Berry 537), giving the whole process a pleasant-sounding portrayal.  By using words like beautiful in depicting what the readers can do, she further enforces the positive aspects of following the steps she lists.  The audience is much more likely to want to be a part of this beautiful, personal process than take part in the heinous culture of industrial farming.  Going along with her specific list, Berry also offers up her own special ways that she eats pleasurably, such as, "to eat seafood instead of red meat or poultry when I am traveling" (Berry 538).  In saying what she does to go along with her claim of eating and partaking in agriculture more, she gives a real, personal example of what a regular consumer can do.  This makes it much more likely for the audience to believe in actually trying to make a difference in the agricultural world, in seeing that Berry does it in simple steps.  Continuing in giving personal steps, she talks about only wanting to eat meat, fruits, and vegetables that enjoyed a pleasant life.  When giving her own ways of doing things, she makes her claim more personalized, thereby more likely to reach out to the readers and make them actually listen to her claim.  By providing personal examples and giving a particular, detailed list of steps readers can take to better their eating, Berry gives a more individualized touch to her argument in order to make the readers listen more and become further invested.  

After capitalizing on pathos, Berry also slips in some logos and ethos through establishing herself as a well-experienced, authorized, and rational source to which readers should listen to.  Right from the start, she provides an authoritative touch in her very first sentence when saying "Many times, after I have finished a lecture on the decline of American farming and rural life" (Berry 534).  By stating that she has often lectured on this topic, she proves well-versed in her topic and her discussion on it.  This gets readers to trust her from the beginning as an established source on the topic at hand  --  American farming.  To bolster her authority, she shows that she tries to appeal to the audience's existing values by mentioning how people's freedom is being affected; using invented ethos through arete, "performance of values and identities regarded by the audience" (Meyer).  Therefore, she shows how she reaches out to readers through the traditional American value of freedom.  This instance of ethos also mingles with logos, as she gives reasoning behind her claim that industrialists infringe upon consumers' freedom in saying that "our food and its sources are controlled by someone else" (Berry 535).  In giving this rationale, she establishes her statement as a valid and logical argument.  Also through this argument, she gives herself a way to then delve deeper into the issues of the politics of food, detailing the injustices of it and how it all works.  In doing so, she expands her authoritative tone by sounding more knowledgeable about the subject.  Overall, she easily ties in ethos and pathos to give herself more of a trustworthy and logical presence to go along with her ultimate use of pathos.

Ultimately, Berry's use of pathos in her discussion on American agriculture makes her argument.  Usually when perusing such an article, readers disregard the claims made, continuing to do nothing to alter their way of life after reading such a piece.  But, considering Berry's tasteful use of appealing to her audience on a more personalized level and through their emotions, she captures the attention and investment of her audience.  Through this skillful use of pathos, along with some ethos and logos, she makes for a convincing claim.  After reading this article, one would definitely consider changing their mind when making their next decision about eating pleasurably.

