Economics Education

Why is it a necessity for college students to be able to write research papers, but not understand basic economics?

I was in an honors class a few weeks ago when the discussion turned to organic farming. Everyone agreed that they would rather buy organic (not sure why...) but that it was too expensive. So a girl says, "Well if everybody would switch to organic, that would lower the price and it would become affordable." I should have let this slide and continued to doodle, but I had to say something. I'm sure I came off as an asshole, but honestly, a 1/2 semester seminar in econ should be mandatory (says the person who one day hopes to teach economics... no conflict of interest here!)