Q5

[marcus.v.p.]

Is E incorrect as the passage does not discuss "budget of a small farm"?

[tommywallach]

Hey Marcus,

Let's look at all the answer choices on the general inference question.

(A) We do know that a corporate farm would be more likely to need a loan than a small farm of the kind that Whatley is envisioning. But we don't know anything about small farms as they exist right now.

(B) The passage doesn't compare freshness levels.

(C) The passage says "...people are less inclined to travel any greater distances [than 40 miles] for food." This doesn't mean people in rural areas would be less likely to join a CMC, however, because they might have them within 40 miles (in fact, rural areas are likely closer to the farms!).

(D) CORRECT. Whatley suggests that farmers grow at least ten crops, but also that they only grow crops "that clients ask for." If the clients want fewer than 10 crops, it's impossible to obey both of Whatley's dictums simultaneously.

(E) The passage actually says that Whatley's plan "eliminates distribution costs" [Line 33]. So they aren't paid for by customers; they're eliminated. The products in question are never being distributed. They sit at the farm and are picked up by customers; no distribution required.

Hope that helps!

-t

[ywan1990]

What about (D)? In line 36, it says 'the CMC would consist primarily of people from metropolitan areas who value fresh produce.'

[tommywallach]

Ywan, are you sure you mean (D)? That's the right answer...

-t

[ywan1990]

Ywan, are you sure you mean (D)? That's the right answer...

-t

My mistake. I actually mean C...Thanks for pointing it out, tommywallach.

[tommywallach]

Hey Ywan,

Hmm. I already gave the explanation for why (C) is wrong in my earlier post. Did that not make sense?

-t

[yasemin_erkan_]

I have just created a new account to post here as this question is driving me crazy.

Apologies to Tommy, I don't think his answer makes sense.


For (C) - Regardless of what is discussed in lines 40-43 about the distance people would be willing to travel, the passage says in line 36 "the CMC would consist primarily of people from metropolitan areas who value fresh produce".
From this, it is surely reasonable to infer that people from rural areas are generally less inclined than those who live in metropolitan areas to join a CMC - why else would the CMC consist primarily of people from metropolitan areas (who will even have the added comparative disadvantage of having to travel to the rural area where the farm is located)?

I don't see how this is a bigger logical jump than the one required by (D)- which assumes that each farm can only be in a single CMC, which is not stated anywhere in the passage. Without this assumption, you can have a situation where a farm is growing fewer than ten crops for a CMC, and several other crops for a different CMC - and still be growing ten or more crops.

Even (B) is plausible - yes, the passage doesn't directly compares freshness and it doesn't mention long term profits and higher prices specifically, but it does discuss profits, prices, and freshness. Line 26 says that "this 'pick-your-own' farming is crucial for profitability" and line 29 goes on to say "using clients as harvesters allows the farmer to charge 60 percent of what supermarkets charge and still operate the farm at a profit". Finally, line 36 says 'the CMC would consist primarily of people from metropolitan areas who value fresh produce". From all this, it is not unreasonable to think:
"If farms are still making a profit by charging 60 percent of what supermarkets charge, they can make more of a profit by charging more than 60 percent of what supermarkets charge, and even exactly what supermarkets charge, and see higher profits (in the long term, as well as the short term - because there is nothing to suggest otherwise). And farms would be able to do this and still attract customers because people value the freshness of their produce."

It is perhaps reasonable to say that the passage provides slightly less support for inferring (B), but I don't see how D is more reasonable to infer than C.

[tommywallach]

I already explained this correctly. (C) says rural folks won't join a CMC. But all we know is that people don't want to travel more than 40 miles for food. Cities are likely to be 40 miles away from a CMC, but rural areas are not. They're already out in the countryside, so they would be closer to the farms than cityfolk (or at least they could be, and that's enough for this not to be correct). They wouldn't need to travel more than 40 miles.

As for the portion you referred to, you're making a percentage mistake. Cities have way more people in them than rural areas. So yes, the majority of people in the CMC would come from cities, but that's because there's so many more people in cities. Think of it this way.

City - 2 million people
Rural area - 10,000 people

We might get 1,000 people from the city, and only 10 people from the rural area. But as a proportion, the rural folks are actually joining at a HIGHER rate!

-t

[Antnat]

For (E), is it too far of a stretch to say that although distribution costs are "eliminated" (l.34), technically this idea of distribution and the cost of distribution are being accounted for in the CMC, since the customers are coming out of their way to harvest, collect and transport their food? Since they are driving out there and are paying for the gas, they are "paying directly" for what would normally be the distribution cost.

[Mab6q]

I guess my problem with D is that it simply says "if a CMC requests." So, it doesn't meant that it's the only requests. I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels on this questions because that was really bothering me. Is that not a reasonable objection to the AC? This is a hard inference question

[maryadkins]

I'm not sure I follow...

Whatley says in line 15 that farms should grow at least ten different crops.

So if a CMC requests fewer, that would violate his recommendation.

[HannahM495]

Kind of a late reply, but hopefully helpful to someone:

I was REALLY stumped about what made C incorrect. To be frank, I think this is a pretty misleading answer choice, and I think folks above have done a good job of unpacking what makes C so appealing. The sentiment is pretty understandably assumed from the information in the passage -- it says the CMC's would consist primarily of those from metropolitan areas, and it's absolutely within the parameters of our understanding that a farm could support multiple groups of consumers, or CMC's. This would render AC D irrelevant. Granted, this isn't a "must be true" question, but it was enough for me to select C when stuck choosing between C & D.

In the end, I think the issue hinges on C's use of the word "inclined." The passage clearly states that the CMC's would consist predominantly of metropolitan folks, but their "inclination" to join a CMC isn't mentioned, and even more damning, the inclination of those in rural areas is never addressed. We just really can't make this comparison without any information from the passage relating to rural areas' DESIRE to join a CMC. I'm not sure if the assumption required by AC D (only one CMC per farm) is genuinely more logically sound based on the information in the passage than AC C (inclination = proportion of membership), but that's the best way I can understand the reasoning behind D > C.

[abrenza123]

I thought E was correct because by saying that distribution costs are eliminated, isn't that technically accounting for the distribution cost? Also, I interpreted customers buying directly from the farmers as customers paying directly ... does there have to be a specific (additional) cost outside of just paying for the product/crop, such as a customer paying for shipping and handling?

I felt that D was worded a bit oddly, especially in the contrapositive - if all of Whitley's recommendations are followed, then a CMC requests at least 10 crops. it didn't mention the farmers' actions, which Whitley's recommendations are directed toward, even though I guess that would be implied. Also, it felt weird conceptually to have compliance with all of Whitley's recommendations require the CMC, an outside influence so to speak, have a certain amount of requests.

[ohthatpatrick]

There are no distribution costs, because the customers just drive to the farm.

If there aren't any distribution costs, then you wouldn't account for them in a budget.
(f.e. a farm wouldn't have any "defense against aliens" costs, so they wouldn't bother to put "$ spent on defense against aliens" into their budget)

A budget contains only quantities that will (at least sometimes) be nonzero.

Similarly, no one can "directly pay" a cost of zero, so it would be nonsensical to say that customer "directly pay the $0 of distribution costs that CMC's have".

I understand how people were potentially stretching the language, but this seems like a case when we want our common sense understanding of these words to prevail.

I see your concern with (D), but there are two separate recommendations that would be at odds with each other
1. grow ONLY the crops requested by the CMC (line 23)
2. grow at least ten different crops (line 15)

So while (D) doesn't describe the farm's actions, the farm would be forced to contradict either 1 or 2.