The mushrooming middle classes of India and China helped cause the 2008 price hike by eating more meat, which, in turn, mops up grain: it can take, for example, 8lb of cereals to produce one of beef. And cars contributed as well as cows. Biofuels transferred over 100 million tons of cereals from plates to petrol tanks: to fill a 4 x 4 tank requires enough grain to feed a poor person for a year. Speculation, too, helped drive prices up. The same factors are at work again . . .
Geoffrey Lean, "One Poor Harvest Away from Chaos"
Why is the passage an example of inductive reasoning?
A. The author is appealing to the audience's emotions by using sad and scary information.
B. The author starts by using specific information in order to prove a more general theory.
C. The author starts with a general theory and then uses specific information to support it.
D. The author is using facts and statistics in order to appeal to the audience's need for facts.
