the following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper."The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time perio

The author of the letter have raised a pertinent question regarding retail price of milk and the need for the government to regulate the milk prices. The author has presented several data points and arguments to strengthen the case. However, there seems to have some inherent weakness in the arguments of the author. I will discuss some questions which needs to answered before reaching any conclusion regarding any government action over the matter.

As per arguments of the author, the dairy farms in the country had steadily grown in past 10 years and are 25% more than number of dairy farms country had 10 years ago. Although, the author is presenting the national numbers. It doesn't reflect the regional distribution of dairy farms and respective growth rate. It could be possible that, dairy farms in Batavia had actually reduced in recent past due to various reasons. Hence, the local market prices of milk are high. We must examine regional milk production data and associated milk prices before reaching out to government for any corrective action demand.

Author mentions a very apt data point that retail milk prices have doubled, from $1.50 to $3.00 over the past 10 years. From outset it looks a substantial figure, which could dwindle the household budgets. On the contrary, we should also factor in the regular annual food inflation figures. If we apply mathematical calculation we will find that amounts will double if there is inflation of 8% year on year. The inflation figure is little on the higher side. However, the Batavia region could be booming with development and hence inflation is high because residents have more disposable income. To conclude my present argument, we should check economic indicators such as inflation, growth rate and household income before conclusively comment that this is huge increase and regulation is required.

My final argument is about the dairy farmer, who sets up the farm, rears cattle and engage in business of milk production and selling. The author has conveniently ignored the potential issues which could be at the level of dairy farmer. We must check about the past 10 year trend of feed and fodder price, veterinary services cost, labor cost, utilities cost and other associated costs which are essential to run a dairy business. Any adverse impact on the input cost, to maintain a workable profit, farmer could pass on the increased cost to the end customer. Hence resulting in increased prices of milk in retail market.

In my view, we must look at the macro economic factors, local production conditions as well as the distribution of milk production and dairy farms at the country level as well as regional level to deep dive and find out the root cause of the problem or even there is a problem which needs addressing.

Votes
Average: 7.9 (3 votes)
Essay Categories
Essays by the user:

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 170, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Although” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...f dairy farms country had 10 years ago. Although, the author is presenting the national ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 230, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... is presenting the national numbers. It doesnt reflect the regional distribution of da...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 275, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'trend' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'trends'.
Suggestion: trends
...r. We must check about the past 10 year trend of feed and fodder price, veterinary se...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 562, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...the increased cost to the end customer. Hence resulting in increased prices of milk i...
^^^^^
Line 8, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ased prices of milk in retail market. In my view, we must look at the macro ec...
^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, hence, however, if, look, regarding, so, then, well, such as, as well as, in my view, on the contrary

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 62.0 55.5748502994 112% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2333.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 467.0 441.139720559 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.99571734475 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.64867537961 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.54606645844 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 236.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.505353319058 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 712.8 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.5450787932 57.8364921388 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.434782609 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3043478261 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.30434782609 5.70786347227 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.121300366969 0.218282227539 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.032369887419 0.0743258471296 44% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0580172283313 0.0701772020484 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0684653252343 0.128457276422 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0641846523819 0.0628817314937 102% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 48.3550499002 123% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.72 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------

Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.

argument 1 -- OK

argument 2 -- OK

argument 3 -- better to argue against the conclusion:

Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers.
----------------

Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 468 350
No. of Characters: 2274 1500
No. of Different Words: 231 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.651 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.859 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.494 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 164 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 111 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 80 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.348 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.277 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.478 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.29 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.493 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.13 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5