Critical thinking

This topic shows you how to think critically, find hidden contexts and read between the lines

Practical task - work with facts, sources and arguments

Go through this text on Fairtrade labels and answer following questions.

Sentence 1: “Fair trade is kind of trading, which gives opportunity to farmers, artisans and workers in less developed countries to earn their living through their work in decent conditions" (1) giving them better and fairer prices and contributing to local sustainability.
Sentence 2: The Fairtrade system currently works with 1.3 million people - farmers and workers - across more than 70 developing countries (2).
Sentence 3: However, some people argue that the Fairtrade scheme is too limiting and does not help enough (3).
Sentence 4: To join, farmers have to pay fees that can vary from £400 up to thousands of pounds (4).
Sentence 5: These fees exclude poorer farmers and those not able to organise themselves into communities (4).
Sentence 6: Some other people suggest that the benefits for people who joined the Fairtrade certification are exaggerated (5).
Sentence 7: Claiming there is no strong evidence that farmers are getting more income through Fairtrade than through other certification schemes or traditional trade (6).
Sentence 8: Thus, the main beneficiaries of Fairtrade scheme might be big brands such as Nestle or Cadbury, which use promotion of their (few) Fairtrade products as PR eco- and socially-friendly tool and benefit by selling these products at a higher price.
Sentence 9: In spite of the fact that Fairtrade might bring advantages to some farmers, its benefits are not as significant as consumers are led to believe.

References

Which of the sentences contain facts which are relevant to the overall argument of the paragraph?


Correct answer: Sentences 5 and 7
What is the conclusion of the argument?



Correct answer: The benefits of the Fairtrade to farmers may be exaggerated.
What are the premises (evidences) to the conclusion of the argument?



Correct answer: Fairtrade certification does not have to lead to a better earnings of farmers + certification fees for Fairtrade label exclude poorer farmers and those who are not able to gather in communities.
References (3) and (4) are articles published in a British newspaper (the Guardian) and Czech online newspaper (Neviditelný pes). Anytime, when you are absorbing Information in media, you have to have in mind that they can be biased and tendentious - inclining to support someone's attitudes or opinions. Please read both articles and decide which of the following statements is correct?



Correct answer: The article in reference 3 is more reliable and credible than article in reference 4 as it address more relevant and opposing stakeholders
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