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--题目--
10。The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of Excello Food Markets.
"In 90 towns where Excello has food markets, natural-food stores specializing in organic food products—products containing no chemical preservatives and made with foods grown without pesticides—have opened nearby as competitors. Surveys of our own customers reveal a growing concern about foods grown using pesticides or preserved with chemicals. Recently our market in Sun City participated in a local food tasting fair, and 75 percent of the fair goers who visited the Excello booth requested free samples of organic fruit. Such evidence indicates that to increase our profits, we should begin to stock a full line of organic food products in all our markets."
--正文--
In this argument, the arguer recommends they should begin to stock a full line of organic food products in all Excello Food Markets in order to increase their profits. To justify this claim, the arguer cited the result of a survey that customs in their town have a growing concern about foods grown using pesticides or preserved with chemicals. In addition, the arguer assumes more customers prefer organic fruit since 75% of the fair goers requested free samples of organic fruit in a food tasting fair. This argument suffers several critical fallacies.
First, there is no evidence to justify that the sales of non-organic food is declining whereas the sales of organic foods is increasing. The arguer establishes an warrant relationship between the natural-food stores and the sales of non-organic food. Although natural-food stores have opened nearby as competitors, the arguer fails to take other factors in account. It is entirely possible that there is one or two natural food store, which are in small scale. Additionally, the organic food in these stores may be not popular. Any scenarios, if true, will not cast the conclusion that the natural-food stores threaten Excello to sell non-organic food.
Secondly, another point worth considering is arguer’s hasty generalization. From the survey cited in this argument, I find no sign of such procedures for random sampling, and may have good reason to doubt if the sample is representative enough to reflect the general attitudes of customers as a whole. Even if they all care non-organic food, the result is not convincible because Excello has food markets in 90 towns. It may be true that customers in their town have a growing concern about non-organic food, it is not true of all customers in those 90 towns in that customers in different towns have various customs and favorites and so forth. Unless the arguer takes the diverse geographic factors into account, we can cast the conclusion that all Excello’s customers concern about foods grown using pesticides.
Thirdly, the mere fact that 75 percent of the fair goers requested free samples of organic fruit doesn’t demonstrate that customers prefer to buy organic food. The argument does not provide solid information to illustrate the fair condition, such as the number of customers, the food displayed, the price of all samples. Perhaps there were only 1% of the customers in their town who participated in this fair. On the other hand, all the samples displayed are free so that customers inclined to request all samples including organic and non-organic food to taste. Even if they taste more organic food, it doesn’t mean that they will buy them. At least if they dislike the taste of organic food, they will determine not to purchase them. Other factors such as price and nutrition all influence their decision as well. Thus, the customers’ request in that fair doesn’t buttress the assumption that customers prefer to buy organic foods.
Finally, even if there , which is an unwarranted assumption, exists a tendency that customers buy organic food, it does not follow that Exello will profit. Since organic food demand special technology to prevent them from pests, the cost of organic food is usually higher than non-organic one. If the price have to maintain low enough to attract customers, whether Exello makes more profit or not is not very clear.
To sum up, the argument is inconvincible as it stands. To strengthen the argument, arguer should provide more evidence about the sales condition of chemical preserved food and organic foods. To better evaluate the argument, we should be informed more about the attitudes of all Excello’s customers. |
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