The amount of refrigeration and transport required to bring a food

Question

The amount of refrigeration and transport required to bring a food from farm to table substantially affects the sum total of carbon emissions associated with that food. Organically grown foods, while they keep many harmful chemicals out of the environment, are often transported over great distances. To reduce carbon emissions associated with their food, consumers in our community should choose locally grown foods over organically grown foods.

Select Strengthens for the statement that would, if true, most strengthen the argument, and select Weakens for the statement that would, if true, most weaken the argument. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Select  Strengthens  for the statement that would, if true, most strengthen the argument, and select  Weakens  for the statement that would, if true, most weaken the argument. Make only two selections, one in each column.

RonPurewal · Accepted Answer

You should always pay close attention to the specific boundaries around what's relevant, but on this type of problem it's even more important than usual to  read the problem statement, and/or the conclusion of the argument, very carefully to learn EXACTLY what is relevant.

In this problem, you have to find both a strengthener and a weakener for the same conclusion—so don't hesitate to take extra time to confirm the boundaries around what's relevant to that conclusion.

The conclusion says:
  To reduce carbon emissions  associated with their food,  consumers in our community  should choose locally grown foods over organically grown foods

This conculsion puts two absolute boundaries around what's relevant here.  First, we're ONLY concerned with  carbon emissions —so the "other harmful chemicals" mentioned in the passage are not relevant.  And second, the conclusion does not extend beyond  consumers in the speaker's community —meaning that if we see anything about overall market averages, general statistics for the entire surrounding region, etc., those things can't speak more specifically to the specific situation of this one community.

Now for the answer choices.

A/
This is an  overall average  for some larger region that's broader than  the community in which we're actually interested , so we know right away that we won't be able to do anything useful with this statistic.  (No need to bother analyzing what it may or may not tell us.)

B/
The information in the passage tells us that the  transportation  of organic foods, which covers substantially longer distances, releases more  carbon emissions —the single pollutant we actually DO care about—than does the shorter-distance transportation of foods grown closer to home.  
But if choice B is true, then we have another differential in  carbon emissions  to consider—this one going in the opposite direction of the differential in transport-related emissions.  The information in this choice, therefore, helps to neutralize the original inequality in carbon emissions; at a minimum, the magnitude of that inequality is reduced by the information in choice B.  So    this is the choice that WEAKENS the original argument.

C/
The food described in this answer choice is NEITHER organically grown NOR local to the community where it's eaten (since it's transported from the farm to somewhere far away).  The comparison in the argument only involves two types of food: /1/ organically grown food that comes from farther away, and /2/ non-organic food grown closer to the community itself.  Since the food in choice C is not either of these, it's irrelevant to the comparison and therefore to the argument as a whole.
(The other problem with choice C is that it we're told only that this fact is "often" true; there's no way to know whether the single community in which we're actually interested constitutes one of the cases where this happens.)

D/
The statement in the original passage about the transportation of organic food over long distances suffers from the same weak wording just described at the end of choice C: Organic food is "often" transported over long distances, but there's no way to know for sure whether that's actually true in the single community we're talking about.
This is the gap that choice D fills, by saying that almost none of the organic food that's available for purchase in THIS community is actually grown locally—thus confirming that the organic food sold in THIS community has been trucked in from far away.  By reinforcing that weakly worded statement,    this choice STRENGTHENS the original argument.

E/
The current argument is only about comparative amounts of carbon emissions.  We do not care about any other chemicals or other pollutants.

colfer · Answer

Conclusion of the argument - prefer locally grown food over organic. Doesn’t say anything about organic or inorganic. Option B says organic food produce little emissions prior to transportation so overall emission could be lower than locally grown produce. Weakener.

C is tempting but it talks about non- organic food not about locally produced food.

D essentially says organic foods are not locally grown . Strengthen

A & E are just facts. Doesn’t influence the argument.

Posted from my mobile device

aryamannm750+ · Answer

Venu01298 · Answer

how is option B a weakener? it is making a comparison between organic and non-organic foods, whereas the argument is people should prefer locally grown produce (which can be organic or non-organic). Won't the argument still hold if people prefer locally grown organic produce as the total emissions would still be lower given long distance transportation is eliminated?

I find it hard because the question is forcing us to make an assumption that only non-organic produce is produced locally, which is not explicitly stated in the passage

I find it hard because the question is forcing us to make an assumption that only non-organic produce is produced locally, which is not explicitly stated in the passage

ShubhangiGoel · Answer

Hi karishmaB,

Can you please explain strengthen answer of this question?

KarishmaB · Answer

Premises: The amount of refrigeration and transport affects the total of carbon emissions of that food. Organically grown foods are often transported over great distances. Conclusion: To reduce carbon emissions associated with their food, consumers in our community should choose locally grown foods over organically grown foods. This is a conditional conclusion: "If you want to reduce carbon emission of your food, choose locally grown good, not organically grown foods Or we could think of it as a plan type question - proposal (choose locally grown good, not organically grown foods) with an aim (to reduce carbon emission.) Look at the options: - On average, food travels 1,300 to 2,000 miles from farm to table The exact distance that the food travels is irrelevant. Anyway we need data which gives the distinction between organic food and locally grown food. - The total of carbon emissions associated with organic food production prior to the food being transported from farm to table is much less than that associated with non-organic food production. This option says that organic food carbon emission is much less than non-organic food before transport. Note that our aim is to reduce the total carbon emissions of the food. Hence if organic food's emission is far lower before being transported, then it makes it likely that organic foods have overall lower emission. Hence this weakens our conclusion. Select for Weaken - Food grown on farms that do not use organic production methods is often transported to markets far away. This option tells us that non-organic foods are often transported to far away markets. This option doesn't tell us the relative distance in the two cases. It is possible that non organic foods are transported over far away markets say 100 or 200 km away. Whereas organic foods are transported over large distances say 1000s of kms. This option doesn't clarify anything. - Very little of the organically produced food that can be found locally is locally or regionally grown. This option tells us that organic food one finds is not grown in the same region. Hence there is no locally grown organic food people find. It supports the long distance leading to high carbon emission theory for organic foods. Select for Strengthen - Some local food growers use harmful chemicals as fertilizers and pesticides when growing crops. Irrelevant. We are discussion carbon emissions, not harmful chemicals. Here is a TPA discussion on deductive logic: https://youtu.be/5G7RYdtP-wQ

ndwz · Answer

KarishmaB  - would love your help on clarifying this one confusion I have for option B as a weakener - it says total carbon emissions of organic food productionBEFORE transportation is much less than associated with non organic food production. The passage talks about how consumers should choose the non organic/local food since it is closer. But what if the carbon emissions of the organic food due to TRANSPORTATION only are so high that they that they more than offset the lower emission advantage during the production stage?

KarishmaB · Answer

Certainly it is possible. We are not asked for an option that ESTABLISHES that organic foods have lower carbon emissions. We are asked for an option that weakens the conclusion i.e. lowers the probability that organic foods have higher carbon emissions. Knowing option (B), we are forced to reconsider whether organic foods have higher carbon emissions and that is all we are looking for. This is exactly what we do in CR weaken questions too.

elslyknight · Answer

I did it as per what most are suggesting and the OA here as well, but... :3 (Do I assume a +10 in my mock score then XD) KarishmaB I have some addtional thoughts to consider (Now that I'm analysing my mock

) D says what the passage already offers as premise - Organic food is brought down from long distances. This is existing info and not addtional strengthener C says something additional - non-organic foods are also trucked far away - infer - because the localites there are not consuming it - the conclusion is then strengthened if the localites start adding to the demand for locally grown non-organic food - might help local food not ship to far distances, reducing emissions. @ Experts on GC, please opine - MartyTargetTestPrep GMATNinja @ ChiranjeevSingh The below is from my offical mock 5 taken yesterday. https://gmatclub.com/forum/members/member-116290.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?id=84588 GMAT-Club-Forum-1infoovj.png

KarishmaB · Answer

(D) is not given in the argument.

Given:
 Organically grown foods, while they keep many harmful chemicals out of the environment, are often transported over great distances. To reduce carbon emissions associated with their food, consumers in our community should choose locally grown foods over organically grown foods

The first sentence is a general statement. "Organic foods are often transported over great distances." 
This does not imply that in the author's community they are transported over great distances. His recommendation is for his own community to buy local. But we have no info on what happens in his community.

Option (D) gives that info applicable to all. Very little of the locally found organic food is local. So this will be true in all communities including the author's community. Hence his recommendation is strengthened.

Option (C) says inorganic food often travels long distances. "Often" doesn't tell us anything so we anyway can't make any inferences. Words such as 'often' and 'many' do not give much idea of the quantity. We would consider evaluating what it means had it said "Inorganic food comes from far away." 
So (C) is irrelevant.

The amount of refrigeration and transport required to bring a food

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Strengthens	Weakens
		On average, food travels 1,300 to 2,000 miles from farm to table.
		The total of carbon emissions associated with organic food production prior to the food being transported from farm to table is much less than that associated with non-organic food production.
		Food grown on farms that do not use organic production methods is often transported to markets far away.
		Very little of the organically produced food that can be found locally is locally or regionally grown.
		Some local food growers use harmful chemicals as fertilizers and pesticides when growing crops.

GMAT Two-part Analysis (TPA) Questions

The amount of refrigeration and transport required to bring a food

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