Irbin M.

Torres
Professor Dalrymple
English 115
24 March 2015
Rhetorical Analysis: Vegetarian is the New Prius
In discussion to the issue of growing animals for food consumption has stirred up a rancorous debate
between those who decide to continue to eat meat and those who have moved onto a vegetarian lifestyle. In the
article Vegetarian is the New Prius, Kathy Freston, Health a Wellness Activist and author, discusses the scientific
conclusions regarding the environmental impacts of the consumption of meat such as land degredation, air
pollution, water shortage, loss of biodiversity, and global warming. As the author tries to reach out to the general
public and inform them about the effects of eating meat in hopes that they will turn to become vegetarians. The
author accomplishes this by the use of ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade the readers that Vegetarian is the way
to go.
Kathy Freston discuses several points regarding the positive effects of being a vegetarian. She uses
several outside sources such as an article published by the UN stating that almost a fifth of global warming
emissions comes from livestock (Freston par.3). Although this may be true for certain methods of growing
livestock for food it does not reflect particular methods of raising animals for livestock in which minimal. Freston
uses a single report to focus her arguments on a minimal issue of eating meat. Instead of taking into consideration
the industrial conglomerates that also provide a large amount of greenhouse gasses. Current methods of raising
animals for food is related to the emission of greenhouse gases. However, in many parts of the world and in the U.S
people have moved away from industrialized method of consuming meat. Industries goal is to mass produce a
certain product, which their methods of doing this should be questioned and thought about. Her rhetoric in her
efforts to convince people to stop the consumption of meat brings in another source from University of Chicago
which states that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much
crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods.(Freston par.4) This
can mean that eating meat takes much more effort than it is to simply eat fruits and vegetables. Industries in the
livestock sector have a focus to mass produce to offer their brand to an entire nation who eat meat during varying
circumstances. These methods of fast and cheap has cost many environmental issues that may be irrevirsable.
Kathy Freston further establishes her ethos by mentioning academic arguments made mostly by the United Nations
and the University of Chicago.
Kathy Freston also tries to persuade her reader by the use of a logical appeal such as facts,percentages
and information relevant to her main arguments. For example . She also includes convincing statistics such as
25% of greenhouse gasses are caused by the use of transportation.. She does this in order to provide support to
her overall main point. Freston argues that society should move away from the consumption of meat. Another
example of her use of logos can be seen when she states that raising animals for food is causes a staggering 20%
of the entire land animal biomass of the earth.(Freston par. 7). This is a clear result of the growing demand for the
consumption of meat by the growing society. Although going vegetarian may not be a bad idea considered by many
others may feel the need to stick with their meet based diet. It may be a pretty logical conclusion to say that
buying a prius helps the environments, but Freston claims that by leaving meat our of the dinner table can have a
greater positive inpact on the economy than buying a prius since there arent too many people out there looking for
a new car. Frestons rhetoric is very convincing in the way that she develops her point. Freston comes forward
presenting all the steps that it takes to raise animals for food consumption, and then she adds them all out and to
her conclusion it turned out that industrial methods of raising animals for food consumption adds to American
carbon dioxide emission which accounts for 25% of the worlds overall pollution.
Althought the efforts that are made by many vegetarian activist to persuade more people to look into a
vegetarian based diet. Freston tries to create a pathos appeal by using her selective word choice to make the
reader feel as if he is involved in a casual conversation. For example in As if that wasn't bad enough, the real
kicker comes when looking at gases besides carbon dioxide . The choice of the word kicker is a clear indication
that her word choice is one of a casual conversation. Another example of her word choice is her use of political
framing efforts by using words with negative connotation to give bad reputation to the choices of eating meat. This
uses pathos because it guilts people with information that because eating meat is a main result of negative effects
in the environment. Another examples of her use of a pathos appeal is her selective word choic such as ceespool
or carcuses, these words have a negative connotations which creates extra emphasis in these words and to the
overall meaning her main message.