Afarmer can buy two types of plant food, mix a and mix b. each cubic yard of mix a contains 20 pounds of phosphoric acid, 30 pounds of nitrogen, and 5 pounds of potash. each cubic yard of mix b contains 10 pounds of phosphoric acid, 30 pounds of nitrogen, and 10 pounds of potash. the minimum monthly requirements are 450 pounds of phosphoric acid, 930 pounds of nitrogen, and 220 pounds of potash. if mix a costs $30 per cubic yard and mix b costs $35 per cubic yard, how many cubic yards of each mix should the farmer blend to meet the minimum monthly requirements at a minimum cost? what is this cost?

How should the environmental effects be dealt with when evaluating this project? the environmental effects should be ignored since the plant is legal without mitigation. the environmental effects should be treated as a sunk cost and therefore ignored. if the utility mitigates for the environmental effects, the project is not acceptable. however, before the company chooses to do the project without mitigation, it needs to make sure that any costs of "ill will" for not mitigating for the environmental effects have been considered in the original analysis. the environmental effects should be treated as a remote possibility and should only be considered at the time in which they actually occur. the environmental effects if not mitigated would result in additional cash flows. therefore, since the plant is legal without mitigation, there are no benefits to performing a "no mitigation" analysis.