Rhetorical Analysis Of Attention Whole Food Shoppers

Jaanel Berrick

ENC1102

Rhetorical Analysis

Attention Whole Food Shoppers

Robert Paarlberg is a professor at Wellesley College, who also works as an associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center. He wrote an article entitled, “Attention Whole Food Shoppers,” which address how the hunger crisis is still around, despite the thoughts of those who believe that it is not since the price of rice and grain has gone down. Paarlberg’s focuses on explaining the effectiveness of having governments finance fertilized plants and infrastructure projects for struggling countries. This claim was further emphasized by her utilization of punctuation, word choice as well as logos and ethos.

Paarlberg tries to inform the audience of the food epidemic, and this is achieved by his punctuation. Within the first few pages several dashes and parentheses can be found. An example being when he states, “We want to save the planet. Help Local farmers. Fight climate change - and childhood obesity, too,”( Paarlberg, 610) and, “ Food grown organically- that is, without any synthetic nitrogen fertilizers or pesticides - is not the answer to the

health and safety issues” (615). These dashes allowed Paarlberg to interject his thoughts into the piece, ultimately, enabling him to be more descriptive, and explain himself thoroughly. The usage of parentheses has the same effect, which is shown when he wrote, “ The number of “food insecure” people in Africa (those consuming less than 2,100 calories a day)....”(612) and “Food percentages continued to increase (by 5 percent in volume)....(617). He includes specific details in the parentheses to provide details that support his claim, and shows the readers he is educated on the topic.
Although, Paarlberg effectively used punctuation such as dashes and parentheses to amplify his point of view, he also had contractions to establish a connection with the audience . He wrote words just as “what’s,” “let’s,” “it's,” and “doesn't.” Such colloquial style of writing makes the article more informal enabling the readers to relate to Paarlberg. They can view him as a colleague instead of an academic professor.
Similarly, Paarlberg’s word choice has a direct appeal to his audience by invoking their emotions.

He writes words corresponding to “most heavily,” “damaging,” and “the pampered West.” Since his article was criticizing organic food, he used words with a negative connotation. This was done to magnify his argument and show his viewers just how bad organic food is. Alliteration also had this same goal. Paarlberg said, “In Africa, where many foods are still purchased in open-air markets (often uninspected, unpackaged, unlabeled, unrefrigerated, unpasteurized, and unwashed)....(614). The prefix of each of these words in un, meaning not. This not only stands out to the readers because of the repetition, but it also can be seen as visual imagery. It allows them to envision unsanitary food markets, and sympathize with the people in

Africa.
Paarlberg has his punctuation and word choice to accentuate his claim, but he has logos and ethos to support his claim. Which is done by the facts he applies to the article. In paragraph he says, “In Africa more than 70 percent of rural households are cut off from the closest urban markets because, for instance, they live more than a thirty minute walk from the nearest all-weather road” (612), and “Blind to the realities, the United States cut its assistance to agricultural research in Africa 77 percent between 1980 and 2006” (618). These facts presented logical evidence to justify his argument and it establishes Paarlberg’s credibility.
The objective of this writing was to educate people on the actual effect of organic food concerning the food crises, and to promote the solution of having countries finance fertilized plants and infrastructure. The punctuation that he incorporated in his article, such as dashes, parentheses and contractions, emphasized these ideas by explaining them in depth. His word choice, similar to the alliteration, appealed to the audience emotions. While, the logos and ethos used, reinforced his reasoning.