Argument10【0906G ANap Hand 作文互改小组】第一次作业 by Ace

XIEXIE19882007UID: 2584138

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: 470         TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2008-12-29 16:53:48

In this argument, the arguer advices that the Batavia government should regulate retail milk prices. To support the view, the arguer points out that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater that it was 10 ago according to the report. In addition, the arguer reasons that the milk price at the local Excello Food Market has doubled. However, one can find some wrong assumptions and speculations in the argument after a careful examination.

It is unfair to say that farmers get more profit without any convincing evidence or investigation. On the one hand, there is no evidence to show that the production of milk has increased. It is true that the more milk be produced the lower the milk price is according to common sense, but the arguer fails to give statistics to illustrate that the production of milk has increased. Although the arguer gives that the number of farms has increased 25 percent, however, whether the production has increased or not is not sure. It is possible that the productive of the farms are lower than before which lead to a decrease of the milk production.

On the other hand, even if the production of milk has increased, however, there is no evidence to show that farmers could get more profits, and the increase of the milk price do not means that farmers get more profit. The author fails to investigate the market and fails to consider the whole nation's economy condition, if the country is in inflation, the increasing of price is very normal. Besides, it is entirely possible that the costs of producing dairy product have increased, and in this case, farmers may get no more profit than before. For example, farmers may cost more money on protecting environment, such as planting grass after the feeding cows, while they have not spent any on protecting environment before.

Besides, whether regulating retail milk price is good or not is unsure since some bad results are not considered by the arguer. Even if the farmers are getting more profits than before, but how much do the farmers get is not given either and whether the increase of profit is a coincidence or not is unsure. It is not necessary to regulate the price if that amount of money is not so large or that is just a coincidence when considered that the government will cost a lot of money and energy in making and conducting the regulation.

Finally, the increase of the milk price indicates that the consumption of dairy products is increasing, if the government takes action and regulates the price may depress the farmers. In this case, more farmers would never produce dairy products any more and the supply of milk will of course decrease.

To sum up, the arguer should make some scientific investigation and given more convincing evidence to show that the farmers are really getting excessive profit if the arguer wants to make the argument more persuasive when consider that a wrong policy would do great harm to farmers.