June 2002 LSAT Section 4 Question 5

After 1950, in response to record growth in worldwide food demand, farmers worldwide sharply increased fertilizer use...

Sallyanne-Tejan on July 24, 2022

Correct Answer

Can you explain how D would account for the six percent decrease? Upon seeing D I assumed this would only explain why the use of fertilizers was not increasing.

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Emil-Kunkin on July 27, 2022

Hi Sallyanne,

I dont think that D needs to account for the decrease- only for the fact that farmers have stopped using more fertilizer. A 6 percent decrease is pretty small, especially after a 100 percent increase in the period before it. The paradox is that farmers used to use additional fertilizer to get more value from their land, but despite the fact they still want to get more from their land, they are not using more fertilizer. We do not need to explain every detail, just the broad story. Perhaps farmers actually overshot the "optimal" amount of fertilizer, and started using slightly less in order to save money.