America’s farm policy desperately needs revamping. Seventy-three cents of every farm-program dollar ends up in the pockets of the nation’s superfarmers. As a result, the mid-sized family farms are being squeezed out of existence. Also, our farm policy courts environmental disaster. Federal subsidies encourage farmers to use enormous amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. These chemicals percolate down through the soil and pollute limited groundwater.

The following arguments were abstracted from newspaper articles, editorials, and letters to the editor. Use the method presented in this section to construct argument patterns. If a statement is redundant or plays no role in the argument, do not include it in the pattern.