Slash-and-burn agriculture involves burning several acres of forest

Slash-and-burn agriculture involves burning several acres of forest, leaving vegetable ash that provides ample fertilizer for three or four years of bountiful crops. On the cleared land nutrients leach out of the soil. However, and the land becomes too poor to support agriculture. New land is then cleared by burning, and the process starts again. Since most farming in the tropics uses this method. Forests in this region will eventually be perma-nently eradicated.

The argument depends on the assumption that

(A) forests in the tropics do not regenerate well enough to restore themselves once they have been cleared by the slash-and-burn method

(B) some other methods of agriculture are not as destructive to the environment in tropical regions as the slash-and-burn method is

(C) forests in the tropics are naturally deficient in nutrients that are needed to support the growth of paints that are not native to those regions

(D) slash-and-burn agriculture is particularly suitable for farming in tropical areas

(E) slash-and burn agriculture produces a more bountiful crop than do other agriculture methods for the first year

Source: LSAT