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Paul Chang
Professor Berns
English 114B
15 April 2016
Essay #2
The food we consume today is under the constant dilemma of rather it is safe to eat or
not. The fear of the food we buy today that are not being made or grown organically or
naturally, to the foods cleanliness at a micro-biological level, has brought the standards of
food in America to be lower. Pathos is the most effective rhetoric device to define the conflict of
our food. Within Omnivores Dilemma, Pollan talks more towards pathos within chapter
nineteen, where he talks of his adventures of mushroom gathering or hunting. David Sedaris
Tasteless is largely based upon his personal experience in eating throughout his own life. The
film called Cooked, places Pollan within many scenarios where he personally tried to experience
different methods of cooking to approach the related topic within the episodes.
Within Chapter 19 of Omnivores Dilemma, Pollan talks about his experience for hunting
and gathering mushrooms. When Pollan was hunting for mushrooms with Angelo, Angelo found
a Chanterelle mushroom where Pollan questioned How in the world had he spotted it? The
Mushroom hadnt even peeked up from the leaf litter yet (Pollan 368). Pollan was given the
impression that Angelo had come other sense working for him beside sight, that he must be
smelling the chanterelles before looking down to see them (Pollan 368). Pollan was seen to
have little to no experience with mushroom hunting as he was completely bewildered by
Angelos ability of spotting the mushroom. Throughout the hunt, Pollan began to understand

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what it meant to have [his] eyes on, and the chanterelles started to pop out of the landscape
had I learned at last how to see them? Nature or Nurture? There was no wat of telling (Pollan
369). Pollan had brought upon himself, the victory of achieving the skill of spotting out the
mushrooms. Pollan usage of pathos is through his emotions and thoughts in hunting for
mushrooms for the first time with Angelo as it was an experience that he could not describe.
Mushrooms can contain toxins that can harm a human in which the process of imparting and
absorbing this life-and-death information works much better in person than it does on paper,
whether through writing or even photography (Pollan 372). This short story of Pollans hunt and
experience is tied to people of little knowledge of mushrooms, in which it is filled with labor
intrusive hunting instead of farming and the skill required to identify the mushrooms. Pollan is
an author, journalist, and activist who explores within the food of America and promotes for
change within Americas system for regulation of food.
Within David Sedaris Tasteless, Sedaris talks about his experience with food and that he
was not a remarkably attentive eater (Sedaris 29). David Sedaris describes his method of
eating:
I am a shoveller, a quantity man, and I like to keep going until I feel sick. Its how a
prisoner might eat, one arm maneuvering the fork and the other encircling the plate like a
fence: head lowered close to my food, eyes darting this way and that; even if I dont
particularly like it, its mine. God damn it. (Sedaris 29)
Sedaris is presenting with humor as he formulates an imaginative scenario of eating violently and
consistently, regardless of taste and comparing to a prisoner. The closing statement of God
Damn it, provides another support of the humor of a form of minor aggressiveness. Sedaris
himself is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor, in which he would

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grab the audience with humor and tie it with the issue in hand. Sedaris had French friends
visiting the United States are floored by the size of the portions. Plates the size of hubcaps! they
cry. No wonder the Americans are so fat (Sedaris 31). This would bring up the issue with
people from other countries finding the portion size in our country to be too large. Sedaris would
then add a comedy bit of agreeing with them even though he went to Claim Jumper, a
California-based chain that serves a massive hamburger called the widowmakerordered a side
of cream spinach therecame in what look like a mixing bowl.being miniaturized.to the
height of a leprechaun or a doll. (Sedaris 31). Sedaris provided humor as his emotion for pathos,
as well as stories within events in his time.
Within the documentary Michael Pollan Cooked, it was split into 4 sections: Fire, Water,
Air, and Earth. Each would represent the elements used in different methods of cooking. Fire
would present grilling or cooking with fire, Water would represent pot cooking with the usage of
heating water, Air would represent the making of Bread as the Gluten in bread would expand and
trap the air, blowing up the bread to make its shape and air pocket holes, and finally would be
earth with how the process of fermentation helps raw materials into food. Within Fire, Pollan
demonstrated his time in grilling out with Jack, with the usage of a foil dome and a large grill to
fit an entire pig. Throughout the episode, Pollan presents the usage of fire in cooking in different
regions and through alternative methods than industrial usage. In Western Australia, the Martu
people kept their traditional methods of fire, in which the fire is everything. The Southern part of
America is with Ed with his tradition method of being a pit master passed down through his
family. Pollan has shown alternative ways with the usage of producing pork by natural farming.
Pollan used the methods he learned from different people and regions in the world to
demonstrate the ability to cook the pig with Jack and serve it to the people. Pollan has shown the

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bright side of pork cooking that made it appetizing. The informative program provided the usage
of different traditional way of using fire that provided opposite spectrums to support his view of
a changed method of producing pigs in a more natural environment.
In Water, Pollan takes a trip through learning how to pot cook through his formal student
in journalism. Pollan would take account in this section to talk about Americas situation in
knowing how to cook to become a thing of the past as the idea of letting us cook for you from
companies advertising the busy, everyday American citizen needing a quick alternative way in
preparing food. Pollan compared with the situation on how India deals with their massive
population and food system. The citizens of India have a form of unity with the production and
transportation of food. The food there are made are all equal in quality as well as quantity as it
shows a liberal society at work. This was a more of a persuasive form as it shows the pathos of
providing a form of guilt from what you eat here in America and that it is not home-made.
In Air, Pollan takes more of a different route into a more logos point of view but keeps
the pathos as he provides the usage of making bread to be the staple of food itself. Bread being
the cheapest source of food, it can also be the salability of political affairs. If the price of bread is
to ever increase, the countrys riots will increase causing violence and conflict. What affects the
image of bread is the usage of what is in trend, such as gluten-free. This informative program
shows the idea of gluten being the staple of health instead of something to be avoided as
commercial bread like Wonder Bread, places about 30 ingredients into their product when natural
bread only requires 3 ingredients, water, flour, and salt. The natural production of wheat are in a
state of danger as climate change are affecting their growth and water mills to overflow or dry
out. Pollan is showing the need for America needing the change that would benefit itself and
everywhere else.

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Within the last section of Earth, this talks about the biological level of microbes turning
raw materials into something of a delicacy. Within this part of the film, humor has been placed
within parts where you see famous people who are well known to easting and cooking such as
Andrew Zimmern, who eats everything everywhere on Bizarre Foods, a well-known chef named
Gordon Ramsay host of the F word, and an American chef named Anthony Bourdain host of
No Reservation, all found the food they ate revolting. The food they ate were are fermented, in
other words, they were decay. Pollan would point out the American standard of cleanliness of all
bacteria being bad on dairy products when it is not. The idea of a germ phobia can be related
with the previous part of the documentary, Air, for where being Gluten-free stayed the trend on
thinking Gluten is harmful.

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Works Cited
Cooked. Prod. Alex Gibney. By Michael Pollan. Perf. Michael Pollan. Netflix. Jigsaw
Productions, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:
Penguin, 2006. Print.
Pollan, Michael. About Michael Pollan . 2016. Michael Pollan. Web. 16 Apr. 2016

Sedaris, David. Tasteless. New Yorker. 3 Sept. 2007. n. pag. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.

Sedaris, David. David Sedaris Bio. David Sedaris Bio. Hachette Book Group, Inc. Web. 12
Apr. 2016
Young, Robin. "Michael Pollan And The Battle For Healthy Food." Here Now RSS. WBUR
Boston's NPR News Station, 15 May 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.