Conventional and Organic Agriculture

Jacob Belina

Engaging Introduction

• Try to use most of the introduction from the arguing cause essay• This develops the problem and it brings it to the readers attention.• I think the opening paragraph from the arguing cause essay should describe

most of these requirements well enough for the reader to understand

Primary Causes of People Switching to Organic Food Products• Better for your health• Avoid chemicals that are sprayed onto conventionally grown crops.

• Better for the environment• Refer to soil erosion and reliable sources

• Helps economy in some ways• Embedded in the second causal paragraph, take notes from economic impact

of organic products and farming practices

Cause

• Bring up crop yield gap problem and briefly summarize• Include counterargument of why soybean gaps are not as urgent as corn gaps

Solution

• Description of proposed solution: More evened proportions of conventional to organic farming systems. • It would address the situation by implementing more sustainable

farming practices while still keeping the impressive yields from conventional systems.• Life would continue on as normal but there would be a potential

decrease in overall crop yields in the short run and increase in soil health and stability in the long run.• Incentives could then be offered to farmers that adopt some farming

practices.

Support

• Implemented because something has to be done.• It has been shown that conventional farming systems hurt the soil

more than organic (cite sources)• Shown that organic has a lot of potential, but the yields right now are

not comparing well with the conventional side of things (cite sources)• Conduct studies and research on what proportion of conventional to

organic farming systems creates the least amount of overall drop in gap but still grows the organic community.

Support

• Appeal to audience by bringing back how bad it is for people to ingest chemicals• Explore different economic impacts of having more organic products

in the market

Counterargument

• Try to force more organic practices into conventional systems.• This could happen by passing laws or creating penalties to those who

do not comply• This would be an effective measure because every conventional

farmer would have to comply by these rules or pay the consequences• Instead of hoping that the population as a whole embraces the fact

that soil decay is a problem, this would bring it to the publics eyes and force it to be known that this is a problem.

Counterargument Refutation

• This may have unintended consequences• The entire conventional farming community as a whole may see a drop in

yields due to these implementations.• This will be more risky than to try to get more purely organic farming systems

in place before trying to see what procedures can be easily adopted by conventional systems.

• It has been shown in multiple areas of study that it is a lot safer to slowly implement and work out the kinks than to perform a complete switch. • Try to find a law where the complete switch implementation failed.

Tie back Counterargument Refutation• My solution will work because…• It can add more value to the organic product food sector• It can effectively improve soil health in areas where organic systems are

implemented. • People are more likely to act if there are incentives involved• (Refer to Econ examples)

Conclusion

• Sums it all up and does not confuse the reader by introducing something new or returning to opposing points of view.• Sum up the problem and the causes. • State the proposed solution again.• DO NOT refer to other solutions stated as counterarguments.