June 2007 LSAT Section 3 Question 21

Ethicist: On average, animals raised on grain must be fed sixteen pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. A po...

kokolyia on May 18, 2019

Why is E incorrect?

Why would the inability for farmland to sustain anything else but animal farming relate to the morality of consuming meat? At least moreso than E? Only farming grain, if not providing adequate nutrition it would mean that we would need to continue animal farming?

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Meredith on August 6, 2019

@Yianni did you ever get clarification on this?

nmart221 on August 9, 2019

@Yianni I think I understood why the answer is B. The paragraph above is an argument, it's trying to convince you that having farms for meat is immoral. This is the conclusion and last sentence which is supported by the first two sentences that talk about how we need 16 pounds of grain just to get 1 pound of meat.

I thought it was answered E because sentence 3 talks about how humans can have a healthy diet without meat but it can't be. Because if you take sentence 3 out you don't weaken the overall conclusion. Okay, answer E proves that we need meat in our diet, but that doesn't disprove that having farms for animals is wrong.

Answer B says that livestock can live off of lands that are not farmable for other products. Meaning that if you can feed animals with other things other than grain, and that we don't need to damage land to expand for our growing population. This takes away any support the conclusion had,
and that's why B is correct.

Ravi on August 9, 2019

@kokolyia, @Meredith, and @nmart,

Let's look at (E) and (B).

(E) says, "Nutritionists agree that a diet composed solely of grain
products is not adequate for human health."

The problem with (E) is that the stimulus does not state that people
should eat grain and only grain. It's possible that people could stop
eating meat, eat grain, but also be eating other things, such as nuts,
legumes, vegetables, and fruit. Thus (E) is out.

(B) says, "Often, cattle or sheep can be raised to maturity on grass
from pastureland that is unsuitable for any other kind of farming."

(B) looks great. It tells us that meat can be raised without being fed
grain on farmland that would otherwise not be used for anything else.
This means that these animals could be raised without interfering on
grain production. Thus, (B) is the correct answer choice.

Does this answer your question? Let us know if you'd like further clarification!