MAT 308 SEA Project

Running Head: ORGANIC MILK VS. WHOLE MILK 1 Organic Milk Vs. Whole Milk Mason Green Wilmington University MAT 308 Dr. Nandy 12/10/2023

ORGANIC MILK VS. WHOLE MILK 2 Organic Milk Vs. Whole Milk The pandemic has created a lot of long-term problems since it started in 2020 but there is one problem that continues to stand out. That is the current state of the United States economy and the ways it changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because prices have risen due to how far inflation has gone up. Also, the natural disasters in the west of the U.S. like droughts and wildfires have affected farms, overall thinning food resources. An effect of these disasters is making big headlines like “Food production costs are estimated to increase 4.1% in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture” (Helhoski, 2023). This means that essentials like water and groceries have gone up along with high inflation. Does this mean that the price of whole milk (u1) will be less than organic milk (u2)? Since milk is one of the common sources of dairy in the everyday diet along with it being essential, this will be the best to put to the test. This theory will be tested as so. Method Of Data Collection To collect the data that has been found, I investigated different grocery stores in 30 different cities in the U.S. All the cities that were chosen were completely random. This was the best way to avoid bias along with keeping the data within the U.S. because other countries have different economies. To express the data, I’ve chosen the graph below along with the data I used to make the chart. All of this will further answer the hypothesis question of whether whole milk price is less than organic milk prices. Also, the answer will include a .05 level of significance to see if it will be rejected or not along with finding the t-value.

ORGANIC MILK VS. WHOLE MILK 4 Mean 4.36733 3 Mean 4.82833 3 Standard Error 0.12007 6 Standard Error 0.14088 Median 4.345 Median 4.715 Mode 4.34 Mode 3.99 Standard Deviation 0.65768 1 Standard Deviation 0.77163 1 Sample Variance 0.43254 4 Sample Variance 0.59541 4 Kurtosis 0.96978 3 Kurtosis - 0.43461 Skewness 0.23474 5 Skewness 0.66114 1 Range 3.13 Range 2.52 Minimum 2.89 Minimum 3.99 Maximum 6.02 Maximum 6.51 Sum 131.02 Sum 144.85 Count 30 Count 30 Above are the descriptive statistics that show the mean for both kinds of milk along with other things shown like the standard deviation, etc. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Whole Vs Organic Prices Whole Milk Organic Milk

ORGANIC MILK VS. WHOLE MILK 5 This chart does a great job expressing and comparing the two samples taken because the higher the bar for the sample, the higher the price is. Overall, there are more orange spikes meaning so far organic milk is more expensive due to the economic climate. Answering The Hypothesis Test Now that I know the means, sample sizes, and standard deviations for both samples I am ready to calculate the t-value. The t-value will give the p-value which will conclude the question. This is the formula to find t: Whole milk (u1): Organic Milk (u2): Average price (x1) = 4.37 Average Price (x2) = 4.83 Standard Deviation (s1) = 0.66 Standard Deviation(s2) = 0.77 Sample Size (n1) = 30 Sample Size (n2) = 30 Level of significance: 0.05 T-value = -2.70 Total Degrees Of Freedom = 58 P-value = 0.9955 H o : u 1 = u 2 H a : u 1 > u 2

ORGANIC MILK VS. WHOLE MILK 7 References Helhoski, A. (2023, October 12). The Cost of Groceries: Are Food Prices Going Up? NerdWallet. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/price-of-food (2021, January 21). Milk Prices Adjusted for Inflation . US Inflation Calculator. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/milk-prices-adjusted-for-inflation/ United States Department Of Agriculture. (2023, October 26). Retail Milk Prices Report . Agricultural Marketing Service. https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/RetailMilkPrices.pdf