Slow Poisoning of India Documentary (Blog Post 1)

The documentary begins by explaining the way pesticides affect all of the food we eat without us noticing.  Then it starts to tell us the facts about why pesticides are so detrimental.  The narrator states that all pesticides are lethal poisons, and the use of these pesticides contaminates land, water, air, and food.  Next the documentary begins to explain the effects that pesticides like endosulfan have on local communities.  They show many cases of children who have deformities because of the use of the pesticides.  A doctor then gives insight into why the pesticides are so harmful to humans.  He states that the poison suppresses our immune systems and allow mutated cells to remain in the body causing cancer and many other serious illnesses.  The documentary then switches gears and begins to talk about how people are beginning to realize the consequences of these pesticides being used and what they are doing to help the situation.  Many of the farmers who used to use pesticides have reverted back to organic farming and are allowing nature to kill the pests instead of the pesticides.  They are also switching to biopesticides which are not harmful to the environment.  The farmers who did so are now profiting more than ever and the profit increases with every year because the soil is getting more and more healthy from the lack of pesticides.

The filmmaker uses many rhetorical strategies to try to sway the audience to agree with him/her that something must be done about the pesticide use in India.  A large portion of the film was a depiction of the way children have been affected by pesticide use.  This appeals to pathos to try to draw in the emotions of the audience.  It is very effective because many people have children and would not want anything like that happening to them.  Also, the filmmaker decided to incorporate many facts about pesticides and the use of them in the documentary.  This appeals to logos, which shows people the logical reasoning behind why pesticides are so detrimental.  The appeal to logos was effective because it was able to illustrate why the pesticides are so harmful.  Lastly, there was an appeal to ethos in the interviews with the doctors from India.  This was effective because it gave the documentary much credibility.