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
2.
Based on the information in ███ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████████ █ █████ █████
a
a farmer's planting █ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████
This wouldn’t help, because Whatley recommends
b
a farmer's leaving █████ █████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████
This is the best answer, because it would help customers harvest crops from the farm, which is a
c
a farmer's traveling ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ █ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███████ ██ █ ████████ ██████
This wouldn’t help, because Whatley’s plan involves customers traveling to the farm to pick their own crops. It doesn’t involve the farmer traveling to a market.
d
a farmer's using ██ █████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██ █ ███
We have no reason to think this would help, because Whatley’s system involves customer harvesting their own crops. The farmer is supposed to save money by not needing to harvest the crops.
e
a farmer's deciding ████ ███ █████████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████
We have no reason to think this would help, because Whatley asks farmers to “comply with client requests regarding the use of chemicals.” But the farmers’ own feelings about chemicals aren’t relevant.