Alisha Torres
Kathy Patterson
English H 103
9 March, 2023
The Persuasion Behind Cowspiracy
Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn, producers of the documentary film Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, are on a mission to reveal the truth about animal agriculture's impact on the atmosphere and the industry's lack of action toward its contribution to climate change. The filmmakers create a compelling argument to cut back on meat products, addressing the world's sustainability issues. They use many statistics, interviews, and visual imagery to persuade the audience to act on farming and agriculture. By analyzing the usage of language, tone, and rhetorical devices in the film, we can gain a better understanding of the power of language to shape our beliefs through effective communication for advocating
…show more content…
The qualitative interviews are central to the ethos appeal in this film. Many of these credible individuals are introduced with their full names and the listed affiliations they are involved with. They give us testimonials based on their specific opinions. With great specialists including Michael Pollan, Kirk Smith, and Richard Oppenlander. The filmmakers spoke with a wide range of experts, including environmentalists, farmers, and agriculture specialists. They provided us with testimonies that proved their finding more relevant insight into the real cause of climate change and the ability to cut back on meat. Proving that factory farming is the leading issue for the environment. As Oppenlander stated, even if we were to remove every single carbon-producing industry, we would still exceed our 565 gigatons of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gases with agricultural farming (Cowspiracy). This places the impact of animal agriculture rate at producing emissions. These experts give legitimacy to the film’s claims and aid in the foundation of Andersen and Kuhn as reliable sources of
In the articles “An Animals Place,” by Michael Pollan, and “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals,” by Blake Hurst, the controversial methods of farming in today’s society are examined. Modern farming methods are a relevant topic of discussion because the foods that people consume have a direct impact on their health, therefore they should be aware of the procedures that farming methods employ. Pollan and Hurst have differing beliefs on farming methods, but similar interests in the environment, people, and animals. In the article “An Animals Place,” the author, Michael Pollan sheds light on the barbaric institution of American meat-packing.
I. The oyster farm controversy as the mirror of the societal strengths The book is also the story of how dominant viewpoints within the society manage to win battles in the controversy and imposed their ideas and paradigm at the expense of weaker or smaller stakeholders. First, we can see a slow shift between economic concern to environmental concerns under the prism of Drakes Estero transformation.
“The Meat Racket” focuses on the meat packing industry, and reveals its internal atrocities, along with how the industry is able to avoid external scrutiny by the government. “Deeply Rooted” gives first person accounts of small farmers. They discuss the challenges posed by large corporations such as Monsanto, along with insight into the need for small, family owned farms. At the end of this course, students should understand the necessity for reform of the agricultural
Pollan claimed, “After a few weeks rest, the pasture will regrow and feed the cows again”. (171) This demonstrates that farmers don’t feed food that animals aren’t recognizable to at local sustainable companies. Ultimately every food chain has a unique process to raise their animals. But locally sustainable food chains have the best way to approach their food system because they do it in a procedure that will not harm the animals.
Cheap food, No time! The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan introduces 3 main topics; Industrial Corn, Pastoral Grass,and Personal The Forest. In these topics Pollan portrays in depth descriptions of each. Within these sections Pollan gets creative.
Is eating meat a detrimental threat to the environment? This debate over meat’s involvement in the global warming crisis was what inspired Nicolette Hahn Niman to write, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma.” Niman hoped writing, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma,” would cause her audience to understand that eating meat, raised on traditional farms, was a superior alternative to vegetarianism. Niman supported her claim by explaining how industrialized farms and vegetarians produce more of the three greenhouse gases that caused global warming, than that produced by traditional farms. Niman’s article fell short of being effective due to flaws in her supporting evidence and conclusion.
Animals are gaining weight faster than their bodies can support causing numerous problems for them. He comments on how commercial cows are getting
The article was written in response to the statement farming and food production is leading to climate change. Niman, being a rancher who raises cattle, goats, and turkeys, effectively frames the situation logically by providing credible statistics and examples to help the reader better understand the impacts of different methods of food production. She does this by providing specific information regarding the greenhouse gases involved, being carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides. Niman, the rhetor, has written this article to try and inform the readers about the differences between traditional style and industrial style methods of food production. She has directed the article towards those concerned about the carbon footprint, we as individuals, are leaving
Abel Corral Ms. Hasebroock AP English Period D 18 September 2014 How Is Rhetoric Used, and Why? “Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.” Those are the words of a classical Greek philosopher and mathematician by the name of Plato. Rhetoric is in our everyday lives, rhetoric is used in our conversations, rhetoric is used in our speeches, rhetoric is used in debates, and even visual signs. Rhetoric is everywhere we go, whatever we read, and whatever we see.
Should teens and college students work during school? There have been countless arguments based on this topic and there is not a clear answer. However, Jeffrey J. Selingo confidently supports and claims that teens and college students should work during school. He uses several strong examples of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout his essay “Why more Teenagers and College students need to work while in school.” Selingo uses ethos several times and effectively persuades the audience with a powerful sense of trust.
Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345).
He again proved this while he was at Salatin’s farm because the pigs were just so “happy” while rooting around in the cow manure searching for fermenting corn that was mixed in. Pollan definitely suggests that the reader should carefully consider what they are eating and the impact it is having on the environment. He believes that the industrial food chain is harming the ground in more ways than imaginable and that it is not considering all the costs. Pollan is leaving out a great deal about how impractical it is to raise animals or crops organically. It takes much longer to raise animals due to little to no corn in their diets.
He presents a compelling argument for why we have to recall lowering or casting off our intake of animal products, the use of evidence and records to guide his claims. for example, Foer cites the fact that animal agriculture is chargeable for more greenhouse gas emissions than all kinds of transportation combined. via presenting this statistic in a clean and concise manner, Foer makes a robust case for the environmental blessings of lowering our meat consumption. Foer additionally appeals to our sense of morality and values. He emphasizes the significance of compassion and duty in our food choices, encouraging readers to remember the ethical implications of consuming meat.
The documentary Cowspiracy, overall, wants to tell us about the truth behind animal agriculture, which heavily affects the survival of our planet. Basically, the documentary said that animal agriculture is responsible for most of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, which also affects our planet. The goal of this documentary is to make us believe that the meat industry, and by extension the fast food industry, are the causes that lead to most of our environmental issues. Also, the documentary stated that the amount of water that is used for cows and other livestock is way too much and our planet will gradually face a lack of water. The solution that they propose is just to become vegetarians, which will solve everything.
Veganism is a foolproof method to provide the answers the Earth needs, especially as the world’s population continues its inefficient and environmentally damaging methods of energy usage. People tend to focus on the political sides of climate change, however, the biggest problem the world faces in energy consumption is not transportation emissions but is how we go about out food systems and daily food choices. Evidence has surfaced about how daily food choices impact the climate severely. According to an assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the livestock sector of global greenhouse gases surpassed that of transportation.