Robert Parlberg Attention Whole Food Shoppers Summary

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“Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” is an essay written by Robert Paarlberg for the May/June 2010 edition of Foreign Policy magazine. Foreign Policy was originally founded in 1970 with the intention of providing views on American foreign policy during the Vietnam war and does more or less of the same today. Paarlberg’s purpose in this essay is to convince an educated western audience that the Green Revolution was not a failure and improved life everywhere it took place, organic food having advantages over non-organic food is a myth, and the solution to food disparity is investing into agriculture modernization. With logos as the main mode of appeal, Paarlberg’s organization effectively sets up his points throughout the essay with consistently …show more content…

“Africa is failing to keep up with population growth not because it has exhausted its potential, but instead because too little has been invested in reaching that potential.” Paarlberg backs this claim with evidence that India’s food issue was solved with foreign assistance in development and offers that the solution to Africa’s food shortage is also development and farm modernization endorsed by foreign aid. In each segment, Paarlberg uses the aforementioned structure of explaining a misconception before dismissing it, asserting his own case, and providing data for its legitimacy. When this organizational method is broken in Paarlberg’s thesis with frequent use of first-person plural, we, it creates contrast, draws attention, and separates it from the rest of the essay. Paarlberg’s essay as a whole also follows a pattern similar to the one used in the four sections, but to a less overt extent. The introduction provides a lot of the framework necessary for the content in the following sections and Paarlberg’s thesis is a claim. “If we are going to get serious about solving global hunger, we need to de-romanticize our view of pre-industrial food and farming.” Paarlberg backs his claim in various ways in the two argumentative segments following, and finally draws a

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