LSAT 154 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Salmon farmer: Farm-raised salmon is preferable to wild…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: The best reason to prefer farmed salmon over wild is ecological rather than other reasons.

REASONING: Consumers preferring farmed salmon decreases demand for wild salmon. This leads to survival of wild fish, and will increase their numbers.

ANALYSIS: The farmer is making an argument for how consuming farmed salmon is more ecological since it leads to increase in the wild salmon population. To weaken this, we need to find a reason why this might not be true, why farming salmon might actually lead to stagnation or even a decline in wild salmon populations.

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1. CORRECT. If farmed salmon are eating large quantities of the wild salmon’s food, then what will the wild salmon eat? If they have no food, then there may be a decline in their population. This would be a negative ecological impact.
2. We’re not concerned with the quality of farmed salmon, only why they might not be ecological. This is out of scope.
3. Like B, we’re also not concerned with the taste difference between farmed and wild salmon. It tells us nothing about the ecological impact.
4. The price of salmon also doesn’t help weaken that we should prefer farmed salmon for an ecological reason.
5. Pollutants? Where in the stimulus is this mentioned? If this is true, then it actually strengthens the argument and makes farmed salmon a better choice.

Recap: The question begins with “Salmon farmer: Farm-raised salmon is preferable to wild”. It is a Weaken question. Learn how to master LSAT Weaken questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.