Logical Reasoning

PT150 · S2 · Q9 Yu: The menu at Jason’s Restaurant

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Yu: The menu at Jason’s Restaurant states that no food served there contains products grown with chemical pesticides, but this cannot be true.

Conclusion

This cannot be true (some of the food at Jason's Restaurant contains products grown with chemical pesticides).

Evidence

Jason buys the restaurant's produce at Kelly's Grocery, and I've seen workers unloading produce from a MegaFarm truck into that grocery. MegaFarm uses chemical pesticides on all of its crops.

Evaluate

The author is assuming that when Jason goes to Kelly's Grocery, he buys some produce from MegaFarm, which has pesticides on it.

This is the way in which she thinks she's proving that Jason's restaurant uses food with pesticides.

Do we know that Jason buys MegaFarm produce from Kelly's Grocery?

No, we were told that Jason does buy the produce for the restaurant from Kelly's, but we don't know that Kelly's exclusively carries MegaFarm produce. Maybe they also have a "farmer's market" produce stand in their produce department, and Jason buys a bunch of organic produce from there.

Goal

We need a storyline where Jason buys produce from Kelly's, but does not buy the MegaFarm pesticide-laced produce.

9.

Which one of the following, if true, most undermines Yu’s claim?

  1. Jason does not know that

    Strengthen, if anything

    If Jason is oblivious to the risk that he may be buying MegaFarm's insecticide-laced produce, then that would help the author. At best, it has no impact on the argument.

    4% picked this

  2. Jason buys ingredients from several

    No Impact

    This only establishes that some other ingredients at Jason's Restaurant aren't grown with pesticides, but the author's argument would still be alive and well. She isn't arguing that ALL of Jason's ingredients are grown with pesticides, just that at least some of them are. She's built a case that suggests that Jason is buying produce grown with pesticides from Kelly's, so our answer needs to help us shoot down that storyline.

    15% picked this

  3. Correct

    At Kelly’s Grocery, most of

    Why this is right

    This allows us to say, "Sure Jason buys the restaurant's produce from Kelly's, and sure Kelly's stocks some produce from MegaFarm that is grown with pesticides, but Jason doesn't buy that stuff. He only buys stuff that is labeled pesticide-free." The fact that this says most, not all, doesn't really matter to us. It leaves room for the fact that some items that are pesticide-free don't have that label. So what? Jason, being conscientious about whether pesticides have been used on the produce he's buying, would not buy that unlabeled stuff (even though it would qualify for his high standards). All we care about is that there is a way for him to buy stuff that he knows IS pesticide-free, so if he sticks to the labeled stuff, then he's only buying pesticide free produce.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    77% picked this

  4. None of the farms that

    Out of Scope: safe

    This argument isn't evaluating whether it's good / bad / safe / unsafe to use produce that was grown with pesticides. It's only examining the truth of Jason's claim that none of his ingredients were grown that way.

    2% picked this

  5. Most people who buy produce

    Out of Scope: most people

    We only care about Jason's shopping behavior at Kelly's. What other customers do is immaterial to this argument.

    1% picked this

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