Eating kangaroos could help fight global warming: scientist

Maybe Za could serve kangaroo? LOL

Eating kangaroos could help fight global warming: scientist
Wed Oct 1, 3:09 AM ET


SYDNEY (AFP) - An offbeat suggestion that Australians should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep has been given a scientific stamp of approval by the government's top climate change adviser. The belching and farting of millions of farm animals is a major contributor to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, Professor Ross Garnaut noted in a major report to the government on global warming.
Kangaroos, on the other hand, emit negligible amounts of methane gas.
If farmers were included in a system requiring industry to buy permits for the gas they produce, the cost of meat would rise and could lead to a change in eating habits, Garnaut said in the 600 page report released Wednesday.
"For most of Australia's human history -- around 60,000 years -- kangaroo was the main source of meat," he said.
"It could again become important. However, there are some significant barriers to this change, including livestock and farm management issues, consumer resistance and the gradual nature of change in food tastes."
Garnaut cited a study looking at the potential for kangaroos to replace sheep and cattle for meat production in Australia's rangelands, where kangaroos are already harvested.
The study concludes that by 2020, beef cattle and sheep numbers could be reduced by seven million and 36 million respectively, allowing for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million now to 240 million by 2020.
This would be more than enough to replace the lost lamb and beef production, and kangaroo meat would become more profitable than cattle and sheep as the price of emissions permits increased.
Garnaut's report said livestock, mainly cattle and sheep, are responsible for some 67 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite being the national animal and appearing on the Australian coat of arms, millions of kangaroos are slaughtered in the wild each year to control their numbers and much of the meat is used for pet food.
The idea of farming them for human consumption is controversial, but many health-conscious Australians already eat kangaroo meat.
"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels, it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal," says Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.

Eating kangaroos could help fight global warming: scientist - Yahoo! News

 

That story reminded me of the failed attempt in this country to market Emu's as a meat source. Alot of people bought some and when the market for them did not take off as they thought they just let the Emu's loose to wander off.

 

Right! You heard the man, load your rifles and come with me. Kangaroo Season is officially open, all successful kills should be taken back to the lodge, skinned, gutted, cleaned and served for dinner!

 

This press release is a bit odd.

Odd, because Australians have been enjoying kangaroo meat for a long time.

It's a remarkably healthy meat too. A meat that is quite different to beef etc.

And it's very tasty!

 

Yesterday a vegetarian activist employed in a British government quango decreed that we should all be forced to endure meat rationing to "save the planet". No wonder I stopped listening to all these nutters years ago.

 

Emu? Are you sure you don't mean ostrich?

Now while I don’t use these guys for supply (one of my good friends has his own Ostrich ranch south of Billings MT., and I get it at much less a cost than this.

Not "emu", but even ostrich really doesn’t taste exactly like beef. The flavor is a bit stronger, but the meat itself is much more healthy than beef. Low cholesterol, Omega-3 fatty acids, high proteins, ect..

Here is a link to a site which will sell and ship both this and other meats which might be of interest. Their prices as a bit "high’ for me, but as I said I go out to Casa Grande and get mine at cost.

Ostrich Meat | Blackwing Meats

Try to avoid the "ground" until after you have cooked the filets or a roast at least once. That will give you a better idea of what the meat will taste like. The gentleman from whom I get my Ostrich isn’t going broke, he is wealthy beyond belief these days.

Of course he doesn't "release" his birds, and the six foot chain link fence around 700 acres is a bit of a bother, you should see those little hatchlings go out and chase down and consume grasshoppers!

 

How to cook an emu:

In a large pot place a stone and the emu meat. Cook for 2 hours. Then throw the emu meat out and eat the stone.

Lastly, be warned that emu's have a predilection for kicking down dunnies.

 

Professor Ross Garnaut is NOT a 'scientist', he is an economist who has the ego of an elephant and the brain of an ant.

His nocturnal habits are totally out of control, and his pronouncements, usually on the mass hysteria of "global warming", get more hysterical every day.

There are perhaps 30 million kangaroos in Australia,depending on current climate conditions, and the population is only kept stable by culling about 5 to 7 million of them every year.

In the world of beef and lamb production and exports, the volume of kangaroo meat available to feed the world is miniscule.

This 'economist' has been paid an absolute fortune to provide reports supporting the current govertnments policy position on climate. His thankfully FINAL report has just been issued, and hopefully it will be the last we ever hear of him as he slips into the obscurity he deserves.

John.

 

Yet another man with a vested interest in pushing this highly dubious theory.

 

Ok, my grill is ready!

where's the.............kangy?

 

Good satire always sticks with me. The kangaroo shooting back at the hunters in Crocodile Dundee is one of the funnest things I've ever seen.

Can you imagine an entire group of roos, armed, and hell bent on revenge, taking on a town? Too funny.

 

BOLLOCKS!

 

As a mate of mine once said if you can deep fry it and batter it i will eat it and for me kangaroo curry anyone

 

Kangaroo is quite popular in France too, especially for Christmas area meals.

As to their "bollocks"I will let Richard taste those.

 

And how about a crispy, juicy well done Koala? topped with a eucalypt dressing.

Regards
Kruska

 

in the nth degree. It is true that carbon dioxide is a waste product of the respiration of all animal life. All mammals who are herbivores or omnivorous emit methane, as do the ant groups including termites. Ants house bacteria that break down carbohydrates in grasses and leaves that they eat, and these bacteria manufacture methane.

The methane released is enough, on a global scale, to actually be worthy of consideration as a contributor to global warming as by mass weight ants (as a total group) outweigh many other terrestrial animals. Ants (over 8000 varieties) are the most abundant organisms in terms of either biomass or in terms of sheer numbers.

"Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2)"
From:

US EPA - Methane

If you could somehow pile up all the ants that you find in all the habitats in the world and put them in one big pile, they would weigh more than all the humans combined. There are more ants than any other terrestrial organism on earth, and they eat more plant material than any other insect, and convert it into more methane as well. Don’t replace beef, sheep, and pigs with ‘roos! Eat the ants!

But then we fart to don’t we. Of course this is ignoring that methane is the natural product of most decay processes, including human made land fills, marshes, wetlands, and swamps.

Getting rid of the food animals which produce greenhouse gases isn’t going to make a difference one way or the other, cutting down on fossil fuel consumption, and its emissions simply is the only direction in which "man" can slow down the rapidly accelerating warming of the globe.

Global temp. change is a natural cycle, and has happened for millennia, up and down. However since the industrial revolution started in the 19th Century, the effect is advancing more rapidly than it has for all the hundreds of thousands of years worth of time which can be measured in the ice cores of both poles.

There has to be a connection, to deny it is just wishful thinking.