【Flyer杀G作文组】2月18-19日作业ARGUMENT10-yuqi

yuqivickeyUID: 2962925

TOPIC: ARGUMENT10 - The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper.

"The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices. Such regulation is necessary to ensure both lower prices and an adequate supply of milk for consumers."
WORDS: 427
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2011-2-18 16:23:11

The argument is well-formed, but not well-reasoned. The arguer suggests that the government of Batavia should regulate retail milk prices. To support his idea, the arguer gives some statistics on the increase of the number of dairy farms in Batavia and the increase of the price of milk at the Excello Food Market during 10 years. Through careful analysis, the argument is not as persuasive as it appears because of some logical flaws.

First, the arguer doesn't consider the possible use of dairy production of the increasing farms. There is no evidence to prove that with the increasing of the dairy farms, the amount of milk directly sold out to market also increased. Perhaps the production of milk in these farms has raised, but most milk may be processed into higher level products, such as milk powder, milk sugar and milk cosmetics, so the milk sold to the retail market in Batavia may not increase significantly, and the price increase of milk is therefore understandable.

Second, the arguer doesn't view the milk price from a overall aspect. The only statistic about the milk price is that from local Excello Food Market, which is limited and inaccurate. Perhaps the milk in Excello Food Market is from other places, not the dairy farms in Batavia, with a higher milk purchasing price. To get a more general overview on the milk price, the arguer should inspect all the market retail price of milk in Batavia as well as the purchasing resources of them.

Third, the arguer fails to prove that the milk profit of the dairy farmers is excessive. To what extent could the profit be called excessive as to make a profit is the goal and desire of all the farmers. Perhaps, the cost to producing per gallon milk now is $2.5, and they only earn $0.5 or less per gallon. Without scrupulous investigate on the cost of producing milk and the purchasing price of the retail sellers, to announce that the farmers have make an excessive profit is unfair.

Forth, regulate retail milk may have reverse effects other than ensure lover prices and an adequate supply of milk. If the government restricts the milk retail price at such low price that farmers can hardly make a profit in producing milk, then they probably stops milk producing and turn to other farming. Thus there will no adequate supply of milk, at least from local farmers, and perhaps will leads to the increase of milk price in the future.

In sum, the arguer commits some fallacies in his argument.