TITLE

Ann Cooper`s speech about, What`s Wrong With The School Lunches? was recorded

on December 2007 at EG 2007 conference in Los Angeles, California. She claims that if we do

not change the way we feed our kids, they could be the first generation in US history to die at a

younger age than their parents. Ann Cooper audience is the parents, governmental systems, and

public- private partnerships, because she does not agree with the way the government

commodifies food. Also, she understands the importance parents play in the obesity epidemic.

She is trying to persuade her audience to feed their kids with more healthier foods by spending

more money for their school lunches in order to make changes in their eating habits. Most of her

speech, she uses pathos and logos. She also uses ethos, because she has a history with the topic,

if given that she is a director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley Unified School District.

In her speech, Ann Cooper argues that we have to change about our kids eating habits

and to teach them how to eat more healthier. She supports her claim by using the combination of

ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ann Cooper demonstrates her topic by using ethos so effectively, because she has lots of

background information about her topic. She says that I am the director of Nutrition Services

for the Berkeley Unified School District (00:12). With this statement, she expresses how deep

her connection to the topic is. Moreover, she says, I have 90 employees and 17 locations, 9,600

kids. I am doing 7,100 meals a day, and I have been doing it for two years, trying to change how

we feed in America (00:12). These accomplishments and accolades shows the credibility of

what she is saying. She also says, Now I said I`m doing this in Berkeley, and you might think

Oh Berkeley. Of course, you can do it in Berkeley (08:10). The reason why she mentioned
that statement is to avoid from audience prejudging about her working place. She adds, Now, in

Berkeley, we`ve gone totally fresh We are cooking from scratch everyday (10:17). She uses

that statement to support her argument by implying there is no reason that holding us back; if I

did, you can do it too. Lastly, she says, I work with in Harlem, EATWISE Enlightened and

Aware Teens Who Inspire Smart Eating (12:57). With this statement, she uses ethos in regard to

what she has done to change kids eating habits. Overall, she shows that her experiences are the

real facts that makes her knowledge credible.

Ann Cooper appeals to pathos for demonstration of her topic. She stars with what she has

seen in recent years. She says, We are seeing sick kids sicker and sicker (01:12). The fact that

she said is to make her audience feel sadness and to make them rethink about this fact. In

addition to that, she says, we, as a nation, have to start thinking about consuming, growing,

and feeding our children food that is not chock-full of chemicals. We cannot keep feeding our

kids pesticides and herbicides and antibiotics and hormones (02:45). With that statement, she is

trying to trigger the audience`s emotion in order to put them in action for the change that we

have to make in our eating habits. Furthermore, she touches on an important matter with saying

that Well, CDC has gone further to say that those children who born in the year 2000 could be

the first generation in Us history to die at a younger age than their parents (06:47). She gives us

this important matter in order to push her audience more and more to think about what they are

doing. To be more persuasive, she continues to bomb audience`s emotion by mentioning, We

cannot keep serving kids processed crap full of chemicals, and expect these are going to be

healthy citizens (10:17). Finally, she says, We, as a country, should be ashamed at that. The

richest country. In our country, it`s the kids that need it the most, who get this really, really lousy
food And those are the same kids who are going to be getting sick, and we should be taking

care of (18:12). She uses these sentences to make the audience feel ashamed and sorry for their

kids. To appeal to the audience emotion. Ann Cooper uses these samples of pathos.

Ann Cooper uses facts and statistics to appeal to logos by giving them as an evidence to

her argument. She says, These are some of my kids with a salad bar (00:12). Cooper displays a

picture of kids that seem to be festive for eating healthy food such as salads, in hopes that the

image will persuade the audience to change the children`s eating habits. She continues with one

of the main reasons that prevents our kids from doing that by giving statistical data: We see big

businesses, Monsanto and DuPont, who brought out Agent Orange and strain-resistant carpet.

They control 90 percent of the commercially produced seed in our country. These are 10

companies control much of what`s in our grocery stores, much of what people et (01:44). She

supports her claim by giving statistic facts about what today`s kids eat: One of my big

soapboxes right now is antibiotics 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in America is

consumed in animal husbandry (03:09). She gives this information to draw attention on animal

husbandry, which we all are eating. Then, she goes on to the reason that forces us to eat those

unhealthy foods: In less than 200 years, you know, just in a few generations, we`ve gone from

being 200 being 100 percent, 95 percent farmers to less than 2 percent of farmers (05:08).

Lastly, she uses the statistical studies about how much money does the National School Lunch

Program and we spend for our children`s lunch: The National School Lunch Program spends 8

billion dollars feeding 30 million children a year we are spending 110 million dollars a year on

fast food 100 billion dollars on diet aids 50 million dollars on vegetables 200 billion
dollars a year on diet-related illness today (16:41). These statistics and facts helps her

building a strong argument.

The author was effective because she used all three rhetorical appeals ethos, pathos, and

logos to support and to build a persuasive argument. There was not any big flaws in her logic.

The author was trying to convince her audience, parents, governmental systems, and public

private partnership, to change our children`s eating habits and to adjust them to eat more

healhier.

Cagatay Ozseker

UIN: 01087215