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Amaya Petersen

Mrs. Szetela

English 1010

3 October 2017

Rhetorical Analysis of ​Forks over Knives

To ensure a healthy life with no risk for major diseases, the answer might just be

switching to a vegan diet. Today we will be exploring the documentary ​Forks over

Knives​ and how Lee Fulkerson used his 2011 documentary to incorporate logos, ethos,

and pathos to try and win over current meat eaters to change their diet to veganism.

The film focuses on the danger of eating animal based and highly refined foods,

and encourages the viewer to switch their diet to a whole food/plant based instead. It is

more than just bettering the body, but it is also bettering the world as a whole. Its

purpose is to try and inform the viewer of the long term risk that processed food has on

the body, such as chronic heart disease and type two diabetes.

Even though its a loaded topic, the doctors (Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn)

explain this throughout the film still use language that it easy to follow. They want you

understand what processed food is doing to your body. There is no reason to confuse

an audience that you are trying to convert.

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The doctors that the film focuses on have their doctorates from Cornell and Yale.

Their entire life revolves around using food as medicine to help cure people’s diseases,

so it is safe to assume that they are a credible source. An easy way the director

combined ethos and logos.

The entire film is packed full of logos by showing you what processed food is

exactly doing to the body, as well as testing it out on real life people. Within our youth

population, cases of diabetes are increasing. If we do not start to change our diets now,

it will seriously affect our future. Millions of people around the world are suffering from

major health problems such as: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Which, can mainly

all be avoided with changing to a vegan diet.

Logically, most meat eaters do not think much about where the meat is coming

from. It is known that it is an animal, but it is somehow forgotten and lost in translation.

Forks over Knives ​forces meat eaters to remember and see the faces of their victims.

Most importantly, it makes meat eaters see what these defenseless animals are doing

to their bodies.

They prove this by their research. It begins with Dr. Campbell’s life changing

discovery in the Philippines, which was that the wealthier children in the economy that

consumed larger amounts of animal based foods were more likely to develop liver

cancer. While with Dr. Esselstyn, being a surgeon on breast cancer patients, he found
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that a majority of the diseases that he treated were basically unknown to parts of the

world that did not consume animal based product regularly.

Forks over Knives​ was created to give people hope that they have control over

their body. The film uses pathos by allowing the viewer to actually watch real life

patients transform their lives with this diet. The viewer gets to see in real time the claims

of switching to a plant based diet actually work. The personal stories get to show you

the theory actually work wonders. For example: the viewer gets to watch a 70 year old

woman who beat breast cancer from the plant based diet, you watch a woman reverse

her diabetes after her doctor told her that she could never cure it with a plant based diet,

and you watch the story of a man who took multiple medications every single day just to

survive down to just one because of cutting out refined/animal based products.

It is not uncommon in America to hear about health struggles of ordinary people,

but with this film you get to witness it first hand. With that, you get to watch them get

physically better. While they teach us the benefits of going vegan and how one can

triumph over their trials. The viewer real life evidence of the positive impact of how the

diet works on the body long term.

It is hard to look at meat after watching this documentary and not think to yourself

about the health risks that you are in danger of. Whether you believe that a plant based

diet will cure your diseases or not, you are left with thinking of the possibility. That’s
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where the use of logos and pathos gets you, because you got to see with your own

eyes people with degenerative diseases transform their lives simply by changing their

diet from processed and animal based to whole foods and plant based.

The director used these strategies to his advantage by convincing the viewer that

they have control of their bodies simply by following the teaching of the two doctors, that

the right food is the best medicine.

Forks over Knives​ is not the only example of changing your diet however. The

Salt published an article called ​Chew On This For Earth Day: How Our Diets Impact The

Planet​ where Maria Godoy and Allison Aubrey explore the idea of how a plant based

diet will affect Earth’s well-being. Published in April of 2017, the authors are targeting

everyday meat eaters so they can better both themselves and the world as a whole.

Throughout the text, the two authors describe big ideas but never really define

any. For example, talking about the greenhouse gas emissions rate but never really tell

you what it is. If you don’t you will not understand the majority of the article, which is a

bad approach of using ethos. Unlike ​Forks over Knives​ where the information is based

off two doctor’s works and is then presented to you by them, little is known about the

authors. Although the information cited may be credible, you would have to dig deeper

than the article to come to that conclusion for yourself.

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However, this is still an effective use of logos. Right off the bat the authors give

statistics on how much food America wastes every year, which is a little over 30%. That

is enough to fill Chicago's Sears tower (which is about 1,450 feet tall) 44 times over.

This gives you a very strong visual on how much food we are actually wasting. Which

then ties into how much that is increasing our greenhouse gas emissions rate. The

authors turn these statistics by diving into the fact that an all plant based diet would

decrease your carbon footprint. Like ​Forks over Knives, ​the two showcase the

importance of switching over to a plant based diet. However, the article takes it a step

further and looks past its health benefits and illustrating its worldly benefits.

It would be hard for anyone to argue that they WANT the planet to die. It has

unintentionally been done through bad habits and poor judgement. The use of logos

makes the reader come face to face with the fact that the planet is dying. The planet is

filled with garbage and we are doing nothing to help fix it. We are the problem, plain and

simple. The statistics do nothing but tell the truth on our impact on our poor world.

Even though it is a serious topic, the authors go at it in a light that makes it seem

easy to just convert to the lifestyle and then immediately decrease your carbon footprint.

Go vegan and boom, you’ve saved the world. It isn’t that easy, nothing will change

drastically unless there is dedication for a long period of time. Even though they didn’t
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hit the ethos point with the greenhouse emissions, they get it by saying you are

potentially killing the world.

Everything that we eat leaves this environmental footprint. Whether it is land,

water or energy. The authors use pathos to their advantage by explaining that a majority

of the things that people eat are taking a toll on the planet. Things like poultry and dairy

have a medium impact. While red meats have by far the biggest impact. This is because

red meat, such as beef and lamb, uses a lot of land and water to bring up. We don’t

want our planet to die, so they tear at the heartstrings saying that's exactly what we are

doing.

Pathos is also brought into play when discussing beef consumption. It isn’t

decreasing your carbon footprint that gets you, it’s when the authors states that you

don’t have to go cold turkey. That is one reason why many people never change their

diet and hold back on plant based products, because meat is easy to eat. When

changing your lifestyle to a plant based diet, you have to rethink your entire meal plan,

you can’t get food wherever you’d like, and you can’t have it readily accessible to you

on every corner. It is a real dedication, which is hard for a lot of people to do. That is

why you can take this one step at a time to help both your body and the planet. Making

you feel better about yourself while making a real difference.

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Another example on the benefits of switching your diet is showcased in Eliza

Barclay’s article, ​J​ames Cameron-Backed School To Terminate Meat And Dairy​, ​on his

wife’s dedication to changing the criteria of school lunches to strict plant based diet and

it’s benefits to children's health.

Published in June of 2014, the authors reportings come straight from an interview

with Suzy Amis Cameron and the work that she was doing. In the long run, the article is

targeted to parents. They have the most power when it comes to reform that they want

done is the school system, plus it is a real good eye opener to take a deeper look at

what your child is getting fed every day.

Seeing that the processed food is doing more harm than good, which could then

motivate the older generation to reform. The focus of the creation of their private school

MUSE and how veganism has impacted their lives. The article begins with talking about

the struggles of reforming the Nation School Lunch Program. Even though many

schools were adopting plant based meals permanently or for one day a week, it is a real

struggle to make reform for the entirety of the education system. It then goes on to

explain the origins of the private school, MUSE, that the two created to help teach

children environmentalist tactics from a young age as well as educating the parents.

The text then goes into the personal journey that the family has faced while going

strictly plant based. Amis Cameron even states that she finally decided to make the
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switch after watching the documentary ​Forks over Knives.​ She says that she is not only

benefiting from eating plant based products, but she is also helping to change the

environmental aspect of it. One major reason why she created the private school. Using

this to get the reader to connect with them.

It then ends with the question if veganism is healthy for kids. The answer, yes!

Kids can get all the nutrients they need from plants alone. It’s easier to give them

chicken nuggets, it's harder to make them eat healthy. Even though you are in a

privileged position to choose your diet, it still exemplifies how effective it can be.

The article effectively uses pathos throughout the entire text. In the end, we

ultimately want what is best for our kids. Whether that be our personal children, our

younger siblings, nieces/nephews, all that jazz. Amis Cameron directs her keypoint to

what she sees best for our youth. She exhibits her school's hands on learning by the

use of growing their own vegetables and even flowers, that the kids have a chance to

get their hands dirty and help maintain the garden.

Also, celebrities have a big impact on how society views an issue. They have the

power to use their platform for good and that is exactly what Cameron does. She helps

show that it is not as hard as everyone thinks. If she can do it, anybody can do it. This

ideal pushes more and more Americans to try out new things. Whether it is a facade or
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a true passion, more and more people actually go out and do it when they see that it

can actually be done.

Secondly, the use of ethos is very strong because the couple actually went and

built a school dedicated to a plant-based diet. It is one thing to talk about change, but it

is another thing to actually go out there and do it. Their school grows up to 20% of what

they consume and is estimated to double once there is more students attending. If there

wasn’t an urgent need for something, or a deep passion, nothing would ever happen.

Amis Cameron shows the reader that this is something that needs to be changed now,

and her contribution to the cause.

With logos, you get hit again with the growing gas emission rate, now is the time

to take the first steps into changing to an all plant-based diet. Not only will this help your

body tackle diseases like type two diabetes or even cancer, but it will also lessen your

carbon footprint. Even though it isn’t easy, there is always time to make small shifts to

decreasing the climate change.

This has been mentioned in all three examples on the benefits to vegetarianism.

Even though it is important to make sure that the body is in good health, society has a

duty to make sure that we are taking care of our earth as well. This fragile world that we

have so heavily damaged can be fixed with a the personal sacrifice of no longer eating

meat.
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However, even though the article describes the school and the personal journey

that the Cameron family went through with converting to a plant-based diet, there is little

information on why animal product is bad for you. There is a couple sentences when the

documentary was brought up, but other than that no real information was given. This is

where logos was not used to its advantage. The text is telling you that is is based to eat

animal based product, but it never in depth tells you why. Even though you are reading

about this change, it leaves the reader curious why there was a need to reform in the

first place.

The documentary ​Forks over Knives​ shows you the health portion of this theory

by documenting real stories of real people and their journey of switching their diet. Not

only did their bodies get better, but they also got to feel better about themselves. The

first article, ​Chew On This For Earth Day: How Our Diets Impact The Planet​, then gives

you an idea on what eating animal products is doing to the world. Not only is it affecting

your body, but is affecting the globe as well. Finally, the last article, ​James

Cameron-Backed School To Terminate Meat And Dairy, ​puts both the ideas of bodily

needs and environmental needs by showcases actual reform that is happening in our

country today. Not only is a plant based diet good for your body, but it is a small step

into saving the world. It is the most powerful decision that an individual can make.
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Works Cited

Forks Over Knives​,​ ​www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/#gs.gepT_Q0​.

Godoy, Maria, and Allison Aubrey. “Chew On This For Earth Day: How Our Diets Impact

The Planet.” ​NPR​, NPR, 22 Apr. 2017,

www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/22/525113726/chew-on-this-for-earth-day-how-ou

r-diets-impact-the-planet​.

Barclay, Eliza. “James Cameron-Backed School To Terminate Meat And Dairy.” ​NPR​,

NPR, 8 June 2014,

www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/06/08/305860073/james-cameron-backed-school-to-

terminate-meat-and-dairy