Self-study
P1
The prevailing trend in agriculture toward massive and highly mechanized production, with its heavy dependence on debt and credit as a means of raising capital, has been linked to the growing problem of bankruptcy among small farms. ███
Problem ·
Modern agriculture has bankrupted lots of small farms
Solution ·
Watley: guidelines for small farms
Watley proposes guidelines which, in addition to smart management and hard work, can help small farms become profitable again.
P2
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Solution Details ·
Grow a variety of crops
Grow at least 10 different crops to hedge against crop failure and generate year-round cash flow.
Solution Details ·
Clientele membership club
Instead of loans, get consumers to pay first. Get them to harvest the crops for you. Grow only what your consumers want. Grow it how they want (e.g. pesticide free?).
P3
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Solution Details ·
Decrease costs
50% of costs are from harvesting so outsourcing that to your consumers allows you to lower your price.
Solution Details ·
Sell direct to consumers
Eliminate middle man (distribution) costs.
Solution Details ·
Estimates
25 acre farm needs about 1,000 people from metropolitan areas.
P4
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Solution Requirements ·
Location
Locate farm near big towns. Have your consumers travel to you to get the food.
Solution Requirements ·
Irrigation and liability insurance
Some crops don't be drought resistant. Someone is going to fall and hurt themselves on your farm.
Main Point ·
This solution will enable small farms to operate profitably
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
7.
Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
The advance payment ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ █████
Not supported, because there still might be things that prevent customers from getting what they want (bad weather harms crops, pests, etc.).
b
Hard-surfaced roads are █████████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ███████
Supported, because Whatley’s approach, which involves customers traveling to the small farms, “
c
A typical population ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ██████
Not supported, because we have no evidence a 50,000-person center should support 50 25-acre farms. We have no reason to think all 50,000 of those people would be interested in traveling out to a small farm to harvest crops. So we can’t assume all 50,000 people are part of the market of customers who would buy from small farms that use Whatley’s approach.
d
Consumers prefer hard-surfaced █████ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████████
Not supported, because we have no reason to think consumers prefer hard-surfaced road due to wear and tear issues. It could be due to ease of travel; maybe these roads are easier to drive on.
e
Most roads with ████ ████████ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████
Not supported, because we have no evidence about the original purpose of hard surfaces on roads.