Girard Gaul: Research topic, Thesis statement, Essay outline

Research Topic: Greenhouse gases produced by agricultural production.

 

Thesis Statement: Although the United States’ growing demand for production of meat has contributed a positive influx to our GDP our environment is worse off because the total amount of greenhouse gases produced by this industry has been rising.

 

Essay Outline:

Section 1: Intro.

• Basics of greenhouse gases and their properties
• Basics of agricultural greenhouse gas contributions and where they come from

Section 2: Current agricultural production processes and problems.

• Beef, chicken, pork
• Super disease
• Artificial hormone content in meat
• Artificial antibiotics content in meat
• Greenhouse gas problem in comparison to others

Section 3: Growing demand for meat and meat products.

• 2010 demand levels for meat
• Future projections for meat and meat product demand
• Changing diets of developing countries
• What does this mean?

Section 4: The growing process and how it affects the environment.

• Gas expulsion
• Energy consumption and expulsion
• Byproduct generation
• Total greenhouse gas contributions

Section 5: Animal byproduct management

• Current methods of animal byproduct management
• Decomposition rate and statistics of animal byproduct
• Total greenhouse gas contributions

Section 6: What is this doing to our environment?

• Impact of greenhouse gases on our environment

Section 7: Alternative animal byproduct management solutions

• Composting
• Methane extraction
• Fertilizers

Section 8: Conclusion

• Alternative animal byproduct management solutions in use
• Conclusion