I searched for more resources using the internet. One resource I found was an article written by the Washington Post - a well established American newspaper. This meant that it was a reliable resource so I was confident in using it as a resource for my dissertation. Another resource was 'The Environmental Impact of Meat' by Ethan Goffman, also a reliable resource as Ethan Goffman has a certificate of Graduate Study in Natural Resources, Northern Virginia Community College. These were both very useful as they explained which meat was the most environmentally damaging and why this was the case. By combining the information from two resources I was assured that what I was writing was reliable. I subsequently wrote approximately 500 words of my dissertation using the information gathered from these resources. I learnt a lot about the environmental impacts of meat production by doing this.  A challenge I faced was having to organise the information into an appropriate order to enable my dissertation to be coherent. It took a long time to solve this problem but after several drafts I gained the skill of being able to organise information into an appropriate format. My next step will be to continue using the gathered resources to formulate my dissertation.

I visited the library and found the book 'The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life And Our World' by John Robbins. This resource was very helpful in writing about how meat production exacerbates the global water shortage. According to this book it is estimated that it takes 300 gallons to feed a vegan for a day, 4 times that to feed a vegetarian and 14 times to feed a meat-eater. I used this information when writing the paragraph about how meat production drains global water supplies. Another book I found was 'Diet for a small planet' written by Frances Moore Lappé. This book mentioned the problems of deforestation and desertification that arise from grazing animals for meat production. By finding two books I had broadened by bibliography so that I had a wider range of resources which was successful. I will continue to find more resources that can be used when writing my dissertation.

After deciding on the focus of my project I began writing the introduction to my dissertation. Being unfamiliar with how to construct a dissertation, it was difficult deciding what my introduction should include. To solve this problem I wrote a plan for my dissertation showing what the topic of each paragraph would be. This ensured that I would have enough to write about on my chosen topic and allowed me to focus my research, which was successful as it meant that I only extracted the relevant information from my resources. This greatly improved my research skills and made me realise that I had to broaden the depth of my resources. Next I will find sources other than websites, such as books, newspaper articles, video clips, journals etc, in order to broaden my research and ensure that I have enough resources to complete my project.

Dissertation Plan:

1. Introduction – state some of the issues related to my chosen topic that are to be investigated
2. Greenhouse gas emissions – explain how meat production produces greenhouse gases and which meats are the main contributors
3. Health impacts of livestock production – issues for people living in close proximity to factories
4. Cows – talk about why cows are damaging to the environment e.g. their digestive system, reproduction etc.
5. Pigs -  as above
6. Chickens – as above
7. Fish – as above
8. Insects – a possible alternative solution to livestock
9. Land use and population growth – impacts of livestock on the physical environment e.g. desertification, land degradation, deforestation
10. Water usage during meat production – global shortages and the excessive amounts used during meat production that could be more appropriately used
11. Biodiversity – deforestation leading to loss of habitats, reducing biodiversity
12. Projected increase in meat consumption – wealthier and growing population
13. Economic issues related to reduced meat production
14. Arguments for a plant-based diet
15. Arguments for a meat based diet
16. Possible alternative to having a vegetarian diet – reducing meat intake
17. Proposed benefits of reducing meat production
18. Survey evaluation
19. Conclusion – sum up findings