For years the outspoken environmental activist and writer Wendell Berry has merged his love for farming and his writing skills to create unique pieces on important topics. One of these unique pieces is “The Pleasures of Eating” that covers many issues on the relationship between people and food. My own relationship with food is extremely inconsistent because I feel strongly about eating healthy, but sometimes my busy life gets in the way of that. I find this article surprisingly relatable to my own situation and I believe many other people can relate to it as well. Wendell Berry may come as very blunt with his words, but I completely agree with his stance on advertisement and animal cruelty in the food industry and his approach to persuading people to make healthy lifestyle changes.
In “The Pleasures of Eating”, Wendell Berry explains what he means by “eating responsibly”, specifically targeting city people (12). Firstly, he defines eating as “an agricultural act” and reveals that consumers, whether they know it or not, play a big role in it (12). The term “passive consumer” is introduced referring to people who are uneducated and indifferent about the food they eat (12). Most people simply believe that food will always be available to them whenever and wherever, and forget the farming process that goes into it.
The author continues to explore the modern day relationship between the passive consumer and the food industry. False food advertisements have brainwashed society