According to Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, the U.S. Department of Agriculture carries out programs of research, education, conservation, forestry, marketing, credit, export expansion, food distribution, production adjustment, grading and inspection, and development of rural areas ("Agriculture, Department of."). Nearly 100,000 people make up twenty-nine different agencies within the USDA. These people do their part to participate in the agricultural act of eating that Wendell Berry talks about in The Pleasures of Eating. Wendell Berry argues the importance of eating responsibly using the following rhetorical devices: pathos, ethos, repetition, and imagery.
In “The Pleasures of Eating,” Wendell Berry responds, “eat responsibly” to his students who ask what they can do as city people to help stop the decline of American
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“The ideal industrial food consumer would be strapped to a table with a tube running from the food factory directly to his or her stomach,” is one example of Berry’s use of imagery. Berry provides the audience with a sarcastic, vivid image of a lazy person being tube fed straight from a food factory to emphasize how ridiculous everyone is becoming. Likewise, he does this to make the reader come to the conclusion that the way that many people eat has gotten out of hand. On a lighter note, Berry provides his audience with an appealing image. He says, “If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.” This image is very pleasant and persuades the readers to also want their meat to come from an animal who has lived a pure, chemical-free life. Berry presents the reader with both good and bad images to get them thinking about what changes they want to make to the food they buy and