Saturday, June 2, 2007

Replacing Livestock With Our Own Kangaroo

As Australians, we should be eating more kangaroo meat. I say this because it's our natural fauna, does less damage to the environment then livestock, and are a pest to many farmers.

In terms of environmental damage, there is rising amount of awareness on the greenhouse gas emissions that are, in part, contributed towards the livestock industry. So much so, that an individual can become a vegetarian and reduce the carbon produced more so than discontinuing driving. The farming industry is addressing this issue, by beginning research on methods to decrease these emissions. Adjusting the diet of the cows has proven to be effective in reducing emissions by 20% already. Furthermore, a decrease in consumption would decrease this further, as there would be less cows kept as the demand wanes. By people taking an effort to substitute beef for kangaroo meat, even once a week, the effects would be felt.

Not only this, but the effects of sheep and cows on our environment is more direct to us, in that it destroys our flora and the ground. Livestock have a cloven hoof, which makes them agriculturaly unsustainable due to the continuing degradation of the soil, bringing about erosion and furthering our already desperate salinity problem.

Kangaroos are our national animal. We have them printed on our coins, jokes are made to foreigners about our riding them through the streets, people everywhere recognise the uniqueness that is inexplicable Australian. In France they eat frog legs and snails, in Japan; Whales. Why is it that many Australians shy away from eating kangaroos that are flourishing under our agriculture? Many farmers shoot them, so they don't damage crops. They are a pest. Why is it that only a handful of supermarkets and butchers decide to stock kangaroo meat? Let's capatalise on our national animal by making it more available. Being our national animal, let's make it our national food, and embrace this. It'd partially solve the problems we have with keeping and sustaining the livestock industry. Also, as kangaroo meat is unique to Australia, we could market it to the international scene and create higher demand than we currently receive for general livestock.

I haven't researched this issue as much as I would have liked to. There are still obvious problems that need to be addressed, such as how could we keep these animals in the wild, but not hunt them into extinction? In other words, is it possible to make the kangaroo domesticated like current livestock, to the extent that we can breed them safely in such large numbers to sustain economic demand I'm wanting to envision? At this point in time, no. I don't think there is. But is there a way to encourage the rapid growth in numbers to the point that hunting them in this manner, wouldn't adversely affect their population. Furthermore, going out on motorbikes to shoot kangaroos, instead of herding them into an abattoir, would demand much more man-power, time and energy, resulting in the price of kangaroo meat being far more expensive than regular livestock, and economically unsustainable.

But how about I simply encourage you, where you can, to buy kangaroo meat instead of beef or lamb? Every little bit counts, right?