Paarlberg: A Theoretical Analysis

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) first hit the grocery stores in the 1990’s (http://gmo-awareness.com/) and ever since then, most people have perceived GMOs as a negative impact on consumers’ health as opposed to organic foods. Sustainable consumption of food is a modern trend followed, especially in America, unlike the less fortunate part of the world, such as Africa, that does not have the privilege of experiencing a richer quality of life or have healthy, affordable food because of the lack of resources. This is known as the “global food crisis.” The talk about the global food crisis initiated after the article World Food Crisis was published in the New York Times in 2008 (Paarlberg, 142), and this is what sparked Robert Paarlberg,

The audiences targeted by Paarlberg are essentially whole food shoppers in accordance with his title Attention Whole Food Shoppers. He wrote this essay to inspire action among his readers and by using a strong word such as ‘attention’, he makes his readers, the whole food shoppers, aware of how they contribute to the global food problem. According to Paarlberg, there were 850 million people in poor countries, especially Africa, who were chronically undernourished. There was no margin for survival for people living in poor countries, as they could not afford to buy food as food prices, especially of necessity goods like rice and wheat were alarmingly high. The recession of 2008 worsened the situation and lead to an even higher spike in necessity goods, which only made matters worse for them (Paarlberg, 142). Along with his connection to International Affairs and the book he published, Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, he establishes his credibility as an expert in this field and shares his knowledge with the audience of his essay. The author’s use of political and social ideas, techniques of rhetorical strategies such as pathos and logos, along with the logical organization to present his claim, he argues that there is a

The issue addressed by Paarlberg is vast and cannot be tackled in a few paragraphs, therefore, he subcategorizes his topics in chronological order: original sins, organic myths and seeding the future. The choice of words for the subcategories is interesting and would immediately grab the attention of the readers making them want to read more about the topic. The use of subcategories would be one of the biggest strengths that Paarlberg uses to distinguish his ideas from one another. For example, in the subsection “original sins” (Paarlberg, 143), Paarlberg discusses how the development and introduction of high yielding seeds and wheat, along with the Green revolution benefited the rich farmers from countries such as America. It was a great achievement at that time, but adversely affected the poor farmers from countries such as India. Subsection “seeding the future” (Paarlberg, 147), talks about the alternatives that could be done to help poor countries. Paarlberg mentions that Westerners must appreciate the use modern technology, which enables them to have cheap and healthy food, unlike poor countries that do not have access to modern technology, thereby facing consequences of high prices in essential foods (Paarlberg, 143). The use of subcategories, eases out the transitions of Paarlberg’s thoughts and makes it easier for the readers to follow, allowing him to make a larger impact on the minds of the