Self-study
Consumer advocate: Under the current absence of government standards for food product labeling, manufacturers are misleading or deceiving consumers by their product labeling. ███ ████████ █ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ██ ██████████████ ██████████
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Point At Issue: Disagree
We treat Point At Issue questions like double-MSS. In this disagree question, the correct answer needs to receive positive support (✅) from one speaker and negative support (❌) from the other. Mere silence on the issue (❓) doesn’t cut it.
In this particular stimulus, I’d say anticipating the issue up front is medium difficulty. Here’s a distilled breakdown, highlighting the area of disagreement:
Consumer Advocate
Premise: The OJ uses “fresh” differently from how the word is commonly understood.
________
Conclusion: Labeling the OJ “fresh” is deceptive.
Manufacturer
Using words differently from how they are commonly understood is not deceptive.
The manufacturer disagrees with the consumer advocate’s reasoning – the link between the advocate’s premise and conclusion.
15.
On the basis of their ██████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
In the absence ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██████ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██████████
When there are no government standards, should we use “common understanding” as the standard for judging whether a certain label is deceptive?
Advocate: ✅Manufacturer: ❌
The advocate’s position implies they think the answer is yes – their conclusion (that calling OJ fresh is deceptive) is based on fresh being used differently than it is commonly used.
b
Truthful labeling practices ████ ███████ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████
Can truthful labeling practices that reflect common standard of usage be established by the government?
Advocate: ❓/ ✅Manufacturer: ❓/ ✅
This statement receives roughly the same amount of support from both parties: strictly speaking they’re both silent.
We have some (very weak) indication that both parties think the answer is yes – they both mention government standards as a potentially relevant factor, so presumably they don’t think it’s impossible for the government to set various standards. This falls short of our typical MSS standard, though.
c
The term “fresh” ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████████
Is the term “fresh,” when applied to food products, commonly understood to mean pure and unprocessed?
Advocate: ✅Manufacturer: ✅ / ❓
The manufacturer’s response concedes this point. Even if “fresh” is commonly understood as pure and unprocessed, the manufacturer says, that doesn’t mean the labeling is deceptive.
Strictly speaking, the manufacturer isn’t locked in to a position on how “fresh” is commonly understood, but for the purposes of their argument the manufacturer essentially says “sure let’s say you’re right – it doesn’t matter.”
d
Terms that apply ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████
Can terms that apply to natural foods be truthfully applied to packaged foods?
Advocate: ❓Manufacturer: ❓
Neither party draws any distinction between natural and packaged foods.
e
Clear government standards ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██████████
Will clear government standards for labeling food products ensure truthful labeling practices?
Advocate: ❓Manufacturer: ❓/ ✅
The advocate is silent. They do agree with the inverse of this claim –