karlfurt wrote:
Farmers in developing countries claim that the United States government, through farm subsidies, is responsible for the artificially low global price of wheat. Because the U.S. government buys whatever wheat American farmers are unable to sell on the open market, American farmers have no incentive to modulate the size of their crops according to the needs of the global market. As a result, American farmers routinely produce more wheat than the global market can absorb and the global price of wheat is kept low. Without these subsidies, the farmers in developing economies claim, American farmers would produce only the amount of wheat that they could sell on the open market and the global price of wheat would rise.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the claims of the farmers in developing countries regarding the price of wheat?
(A) Wheat that is not processed for consumption can be used for certain industrial applications.
(B) Non-governmental buyers of wheat and wheat products are able to predict how much wheat they will need several years in advance.
(C) The United States government offers similar subsidies to soybean farmers, though the global price of soybeans is significantly higher than that of wheat.
(D) Other countries, such as Canada and Russia, are likely to produce more wheat if the United States were to reduce its output.
(E) The price of sorghum, a crop for which the United States government offers no subsidies, is lower than that of wheat.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
Farmers in developing countries claim that the global price of wheat is low because American farmers produce too much of the grain. They also claim that American farmers produce too much wheat because they have no incentive to manage their crops, since the U.S. government will buy whatever wheat American farmers cannot sell on the open market. We are asked to find a choice that weakens the claims of the farmers in developing countries that removing the American subsidy would cause the price of wheat to rise.
(A) That there are uses for wheat that is not eaten is irrelevant here. This does not address any aspect of the farmers' claims.
(B) The fact that buyers of wheat can predict their needs in advance is irrelevant here, because the text indicates that American farmers do not pay attention to actual demand for wheat.
(C) In this argument, the global market for soybeans is irrelevant to the global market for wheat, which is a different commodity with different demand, supply, and pricing structures.
(D) CORRECT. The farmers assume that the sole cause of the wheat surplus is the United States. This answer choice suggests that other countries would modify their output to counterbalance any reduction on the part of the United States, keeping prices constant instead of allowing them to rise.
(E) The price of another crop is largely irrelevant. Moreover, the fact that the price of sorghum, a non-subsidized crop, is lower tends to support, rather than weaken, the claims of the farmers.