The Organic Craze

Is organic food healthier? This is the question of the hour in mainstream nutrition news, and one confronted in an article by Lauren Serkes, who is a columnist for Diamondback Online. In this article Serkes tries to persuade readers that although there is a growing trend to buy organic food, there is no research to prove its alleged health benefits over conventional foods and the public should not fall into this craze of buying all foods organic without such evidence. Serkes uses a few helpful tools and strategies in making her case against the promotion of organic foods as being healthier than foods that are not organic. Several times throughout the article Serkes repeats her opinion that organic foods are not empirically healthier than non-organic foods. Serkes uses this strategy of persuasion effectively, making her point in different ways and locations throughout the article, likely adding to the reader's understanding of her argument. Serkes also provided excellent and researched reasons as to why she does not believe that organic food is necessarily healthier than other foods. Her opinion of this topic became much more concrete and legit in my eyes after reading her well-thought and researched explanations. Serkes also used the method of comparison to drive home her main point. Serkes, brilliantly used a well-known food product and its label to point out a major difference between the weak health claims of organic foods and foods that are labeled with such claims for their proven health benefits. Serkes used these and other techniques to propose a strong argument against the assumption that organic foods are by nature healthier than other foods. Her argument could have been more effective had she had conveyed the message more clearly and deliberately to her audience. The article is full of her opinion, and she did a great job of making her opinion clear, however it was only loosely tied to the audience and their need to re-think the health benefits of organic products, making her persuasion less successful.