Andra Sarbu
02/08/2011
English 104-M44
Jeff Gard
Critical Analysis Essay
“The Organic Myth: Pastoral ideals are getting trampled as organic food goes mass
market” by Diane Brady is an article that discusses the many changes that are being made to the
meaning of organic food. Brady talks about how organic farms used to be and how big
corporations want to become part of the organic food business because of its high demand and
profitability. Most people think of organic food as food that comes from animals that were not
given hormones, antibiotics, or other chemicals and were grass or naturally fed and produce that
was not sprayed with pesticides or that was genetically altered. Maybe more importantly when it
comes to this article when the word organic is used people usually think of small family farms.
Slowly the meaning of organic is starting to change. The USDA has established a set of “rules”
or guidelines that must be followed in order to claim that a food is organic. This has resulted in
more and more food companies getting away with calling the product they sell “organic”. Many
organic farms now have thousands of cows as opposed to the 20-40 cows in the past. The reason
for this is that organic food is in high demand and in low supply. Large corporations such as
Wal-Mart and Costco are trying to make organic food readily available and affordable for all
their customers. Because of the high demand and corporate takeover of organic food, companies
are looking to import their products from other countries such as China, Turkey, and Canada
where people are worried that the regulations that make the food they are buying organic are not
being followed. These changes in the way organic food is made and where it is coming from are
also changing what it actually means for food to be organic.
This article is aimed toward consumers, particularly those who buy organic food
but are have a neutral attitude toward to issue at hand because they are not informed about the
issues that Brady discusses. I believe that Brady makes her main point very clear and supports it
well with a number of techniques. The main point that she wants to get across to her readers is
that what it means to consume organic food and the standards of what organic food is changing.
Brady approaches her argument in two ways; using a logos appeal as well as pathos appeal. I
think she used the logos appeal very effectively and gave many statistics, facts, scientific data,
and supporting evidence. For example, she states that dairy producers estimate that the demand
for organic milk is at least double the amount of what is currently available and that the United
States will have to more than double the number of organic cows. Brady then states, “The
number of dairy farms has shrunk to 60,000, from 334,000 in 1980, according to the National
Milk Producers Federation. And almost half the milk produced in the U.S. comes from farms
with more than 500 cows, something organic advocates rarely support.” This kind of supporting
evidence is very effective because the numbers are significant and surprising.
I believe that Brady also uses a pathos approach in her argument in trying to make the
reader angry about the changes that are taking place. An example of her using a pathos argument
is when she is explaining why consumers choose to buy organic food over non organic food she
states those consumers, “Are responding to tales of caged chickens and confined cows that never
touch a blade of grass; talk of men losing fertility and girls becoming women at age nine because
of extra hormones in food. They read about pesticides seeping into the food supply and
genetically modified crops creeping across the landscape.” This statement grabs people’s
attention and makes them angry at big corporations for trying to make it more difficult for those
people who wish to eat only truly organic food and not have to settle with food that barely meets
the standards of what the companies consider to be organic.
I believe that Brady’s article is for the most part well organized and structured
throughout. The opening paragraph tells her readers what most people think when they go to a
grocery store and see a product that claims to be organic. She does a good job of getting the
reader’s attention with this by telling about how organic foods are traditionally envisioned. She
then goes on to state that the company that makes this products’ main facility is actually a state
of the art industrial plant and looks nothing like what the reader had previously imagined. Brady
then goes on to tell why and how the production of organic food got this way. I think this is an
important component to the article because she presents many facts and uses statistics that are
not necessarily common knowledge.
Overall Brady does a good job of convincing her readers about the changes that are
happening and about to happen concerning the organic food industry. She does not however
leave them with any sense of what can be done about it. I feel like she is almost saying that this
is the way it’s going to be and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. I think that her argument
would have been stronger and the article would have had more meaning if she had left the reader
with at least some sort of suggestion as to what can be done or how to ensure that the foods
consumers are buying are truly organic.