What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic Analysis

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Steven Shapin is an expert when it comes to telling people the reality of the situation. In his, article “What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic?” Shapin exposes and explains the truth behind the word organic. He explains that our view on organic is not a reality. The small farms that we picture in our heads are really just big business in disguise and these big businesses are trying to do good by supposedly not using harmful pesticides. Which are supposed to not damage the environment but in reality they are probably not making any sort of difference. Some people care about the environment, while others are buying taste when it comes to organic food but using different pesticides are going to help the taste, only freshness tastes the best. …show more content…

In this second to last section, we learn that our decisions about how we want our food produced and delivered count towards social virtue. Emile Durkheim’s The Division of Labor in Society is one of the founding texts of modern social theory, and draws a distinction between what Durkheim called mechanical and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is largely a premodern form while organic solidarity flows from the division of labor. In organic solidarity according to Durkheim, individuals depend on one another for various tasks. However, in mechanical solidarity, people are independent but they are also aware of what each person is doing. They all have a different task that they are completing in order to survive. In these, societies you did not need to know who grew the food that was on your plate or for that matter who made your plate (435). This is Shapin’s most convincing argument in the whole essay, the logos he uses is very well done. The evidence behind his argument is well defined and thought out. His use of Emile Durkheim’s text in his argument of the morals in food helps bring the argument together. This brings us to the final most convincing argument in the entire …show more content…

Shapin explains that it is not wrong to think that we are possibly consuming a moral agenda and not just a salad, but it is biting off a little more than people are willing to chew. Cascadian Farm’s Gene Kahn volunteers his opinion on impact that food has on the average person’s life: “This is just lunch for most people. Just lunch. We can call it sacred, we can talk about communion, but it’s just lunch.” (439-440). Although, there is not much evidence in this last paragraph of his argument, it is the most straight to the point and thought out argument in the entire essay. The argument ends with a quote that is very important to this entire argument and it just ties the whole article together. The beginning of the essay is a little slow but as it progresses, the arguments get more clear and well thought

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