Self-study
Farmer: Support Farming with artificial fertilizers, though more damaging to the environment than organic farming, allows more food to be grown on the same amount of land. ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that if enough food is to be produced, the practice or organic farming cannot spread any further. This is based on the fact that if all farmers were to practice organic farming, they wouldn’t be able to produce enough food for Earth’s population.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The premise establishes that to make enough food, we can’t have “all farmers” doing organic farming. But the author mistakenly interprets that to mean we can’t have any increase in organic farming. The author overlooks the possibility that having an increase in organic farming can still allow us to feed Earth’s population, as long as that increase doesn’t extend to “all farmers.”
21.
The reasoning in the farmer's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It takes for ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███
The author acknowledges that artificial fertilizer-based farming is “more damaging” than organic farming. There’s no indication the author thinks this damage is only slight as opposed to significant.
b
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ███
This possibility, if true, shows that it’s possible organic farming can spread without it extending to “all farmers.” And if it doesn’t extend to “all farmers,” then we have no reason to think we’d be in a position where it’s impossible to feed the world.
c
It fails to ████████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ ██████████ ████████████
The premise establishes that in order to feed the world, we can’t have “all farmers” doing organic farming. What farming was like in the past and how much food such farming allowed has no bearing on what the premise says is currently required.
d
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ █ ███████████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ████ ████
This isn’t a possibility overlooked by the author; it’s closer to something the author assumes. The author thinks that we’ll face inability to feed people if organic farming spreads even a little bit more. Since this possibility doesn’t hurt the argument, it’s not the flaw.
e
It takes for ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████
The author’s argument doesn’t assume anything about damage to human health. The issue is whether a further spread of organic farming would lead to inability to produce enough food. How fertilizers affect health doesn’t bear on this issue.