November 2018 LSAT Section 1 Question 21

Farmer: Farming with artificial fertilizers, though more damaging to the environment than organic farming, allows mor...

AndrewArabie on January 21, 2023

Why not D?

If industrial farming is more harmful to the environment than organic, then eventually it would stop producing food. So whether or not organic farming spreads, the argument is leading to a conclusion of food shortages and this is exactly what D says. As for C, if organic farming is spreading, how can that happen without farmers adopting the practice? A practice can't spread without practitioners adopting the practice. I'm so confused.

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Emil-Kunkin on January 22, 2023

Hi, I don't think that being harmful to the environment would guarantee that it would end food production. Not all environmentally damaging things will impact food production, it could decrease biodiversity or raise temperatures without necessarily impacting how much food we can grow. The argument is not necessarily leading to food shortages in either direction.

Furthermore, the author seems to treat this as all or nothing, either we are completely organic or we all use fertilizers. B directly attacks this. Perhaps more farmers could use organic methods, but not all. Perhaps the practice of organic farming continues to spread. (Say from 5 percent of farmers to 10 percent) but the overwhelming majority of farmers still use chemicals.

AndrewArabie on January 23, 2023

Your explanation of B is obviously correct now that I have fresh eyes on it. I cant believe I missed that. Thank you

Emil-Kunkin on January 24, 2023

Things that on a second or third read seam "obviously correct" usually aren't on the first few reads! It's very easy to fall into this trap, but I would want you to be aware of when you're inserting your own assumptions from the outside world. I would likely agree that harming the environment will lead to a decline in food production over the long run, but it doesn't have to be true.