7.Cogs in the Great Machine By Rebekah Bishop, Sophia Allen & Amber Kim

The Intro This chapter covers a variety of components that come together to make the meat industry. The “cogs” in the industry that the author describes are how the animals are kept and fed, the unethical changes during the industry’s westward expansion, the low pay of workers’ as well as the company’s increasing revenue, illegal immigrant labor, and lastly the horrid smell released from the slaughterhouses.

Eric Schlosser argues that the meat industry is corrupt and that the animals and workers are treated unfairly. Argument

The author’s intentions in writing this chapter is to reveal the corruption in each of the small elements that come together to make an overall corrupted food system. Purpose

Rhetorical Strategies ●Hyperbole-“We have only three odors… burning hair and blood, that greasy smell, and the smell of rotten eggs.” ●Imagery: "You can smell Greeley, Colorado, long before you can see it. The smell is hard to forget but easy to describe, a combination of live animals, manure, and dead animals being rendered into dog food..." ●Irony: “From its inception, the company that started the revolution in meatpacking- by crushing labor unions and championing the ruthless efficiency of the market… In 1960, Currier J. Holman and A.D. Anderson launched Iowa Beef Packers with a $300,00 loan from the federal Small Business Administration.”

Rhetorical Strategy One rhetorical strategy that Schlosser uses is a hyperbole. He quotes a resident from Lexington, a slaughterhouse city, who states “We have only three odors… burning hair and blood, that greasy smell, and the smell of rotten eggs.” It is obvious that there are more that just three smells in the entire city, but the exaggeration makes the point that the smells caused by the slaughterhouse is out of hand and dangerously affecting the town. This proves to be another small way that the meat industry is out of hand.

Rhetorical Strategy Another rhetorical device the author uses is imagery. One of the many times he uses it is when Schlosser says "You can smell Greeley, Colorado, long before you can see it. The smell is hard to forget but easy to describe, a combination of live animals, manure, and dead animals being rendered into dog food..." By describing a “modern day factory town where cattle are the main units of production” in clear detail, he exposes the reader to all of the negative effects that have come from the thriving meat packing industry.

Rhetorical Strategy The author also uses irony to show how much of a monopoly the meat industry is. He explains that “From its inception, the company that started the revolution in meatpacking- by crushing labor unions and championing the ruthless efficiency of the market… In 1960, Currier J. Holman and A.D. Anderson launched Iowa Beef Packers with a $300,00 loan from the federal Small Business Administration”. It is completely ironic that a company that had done many ruthless things to have a successful big business with cheap labor and crushed unions had started with help from the Small Business Administration. It just proves that the meat industry has become more corrupt as it has grown over time.

Tone The author portrays a critical and direct tone throughout chapter seven. He is very critical towards the way the animals are treated and handled by the workers of these big named companies. Also, Schlosser shows that the workers are often taken into jail for working at places like Greenley trying to make a living out of the little pay they receive.

Audience The intended audience for this book is society itself. So many Americans chose to eat junk foods such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Carl’s Junior, etc. because it is cheaper than buying organic or making a better choice and making their own meals. Schlosser is revealing to society that the fast food industry and its producers are not always reliable, especially when it comes to the meat and how crudely the animals are treated while staying in the slaughterhouses before their innocent deaths.

The End.