The Australian government’s climate change advisor, Professor Ross Garnaut, has suggested that reducing sheep and cattle numbers and replacing them with 175 million farmed kangaroos would help to dramatically reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Read more here.
Yep. The concept of a climate crisis can be used to justify all sorts of things.
A problem for the kangaroo industry has been the lack of a reliable market in large part because of animal rights campaigning against the killing of this Australian icon, and cute and cuddly.
The late Steve Irwin was against the idea of farming Australian native animals and supported a campaign that forced David Beckham to stop wearing kangaroo skin soccer boots.
There are better reasons than ‘climate change’ for eating what I have called ‘Nature’s natural bounty’ including kangaroo and also whale. But we first need to overcome some of our cultural aversions. Read more here.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Three years after your OLO article, Jen, and how far have we gone? Poor old Guano recycling some cheap thrills.
Roos can’t be properly farmed unless they can be herded, inspected, medicated, transported and sold live to restockers or to meatworks.
It took 5000 years to breed the wild animal out of cattle and Guano thinks we can do the same for ‘Roos in a few generations. And how many farmers sons will have their guts ripped open by a stroppy Boomer in a yard as they try to conduct the most cursory of health checks?
It seems that the more one is removed from practical farming the more folks like the idea of ‘Roo farming. They like the idea best in the inner city so why don’t we send them in a truck load and let them loose in the Botanic Gardens?
Cattle and sheep really are carbon neutral they don’t produce more than has been taken from the atmosphere in the first place by the plants hey eat. Same goes for kangaroo and the whole animal kingdom.
There might well be other reasons for eating kangaroo but reducing carbon emissions has to be one of the silliest ones I’ve seen in a while.
Yes — the concept of climate crisis can be used to justify just about anything , thats why they have manufactured AGW and the pollies have all come along for the ride.
No — for the reasons metioned by Mr Mott, its not a good idea .
Guano is already roadkill – I rather like the irony here.
Even Keating (of the Paul variety) has pinged Guano’s manifest vanity.
Keating on vanity? Public life provides some incredible examples of rampant narcissism but this “planet salvation” gig really takes the cake.
So we have a whole host of plodders who delude themselves with the belief that no, they are not the useless blobs of primordial sludge that they might appear to be because they are really foot soldiers in the battle to save the f@%& planet.
It is all in their own head. The knight, his horse and a convenient windmill.
The interesting thing about the ‘Roo vs Cattle carbon accounting issue is the fact that, once again, the IPCC lacks consistency.
On one hand they accept that the carbon emitted when animals eat grass is the same carbon that the grass absorbed as it grew, just a month earlier. This cannot form a net emission because it is a continuous cycle of absorption and emission.
But it seems that when the animal turns a portion of that grass carbon into a by-product called methane, they seem to forget that the inputs came from a recent absorption.
Methane is given a climate weighting of 20 times the CO2 equivalent based on a modelled warming potency 20 times greater than CO2.
But we are only talking about a methane by-product. The majority of the carbon in the grass will be converted to energy used by the animal in metabolism, movement and weight gain. And it is in the farmers interest to ensure that as much of this carbon input goes to weight gain as possible.
So it is only the conversion of CO2 into the more potent methane that has any relevance in greenhouse accounting. And that means the raw methane volume must have the equivalent metabolised CO2 volume deducted from it.
Ian: “But it seems that when the animal turns a portion of that grass carbon into a by-product called methane, they seem to forget that the inputs came from a recent absorption.”
They also forget that methane fairly quickly oxidises to CO2 + H2O which can then be absorbed by other plants to feed the next cow that comes along.
The largest producers of methane in Australia are not cattle but termites. Every one of the billions of termite mounds dotting our entire landscape is a small methane generator. Most of the grass eaten by cattle would otherwise be harvested by termites and converted to methane. The current claims and concerns regarding the production of methane by the grazing industry are simply ill informed eco-claptrap. While the global ruminant herd had been increasing by about 17 million head per year for the past decade atmospheric methane levels uver the same period have been nearly unchanged with the only trend being a small decline.
Seriously, Jennifer, even when I ate meat, mutton was the vilest tasting of the lot. Even great clumps of mint jelly couldn’t help me gag it down. Eating it reminded me of Charlie Chaplin eating that boot in the Gold Rush. Now you’re suggesting kangaroo? I hope you wont extend that to asking Canadians to eat our national animal. 🙂
Jennifer and Professor Garnaut are not alone in calling for the harvesting of Kangaroo. International environmental historian Jared Diamond in his book “Collapse” even claimed the meat was “absolutely delicious”.
In this major book, he includes a chapter on Australia, he states that the appropriateness of sheep farming is deceptive and points to the fact that the soft paws of the kangaroo are less damaging to the soil. Diamond claims that kangaroo meat is lean and healthy and that in addition to meat kangaroos yield valuable hides.
He also is critical of the animal welfare lobby for their opposition to the farming of kangaroo, claiming these groups over look the living conditions and the slaughter methods for domestic sheep and cattle are much crueller than for wild kangaroo.
Professor Garnaut claims that shifting meat production to the kangaroo can save 16 Mt CO2-e per year on an ongoing basis. This is double the annual emissions from Tasmania, where sustainable forest management has already helped to reduced emissions by 26%.
Perhaps it’s no longer easy being green; having to support the harvest of native species and even the forest sector in that the best and cheapest way to sequester carbon is storing it in wood products harvested from sustainably managed forests.
Walter,
Any stats on termite methane production?
In any all the cattle in the Kimberley don’t eat grass but small shrubs etc. Horses up here eat grass.
Gordon: “Eating it reminded me of Charlie Chaplin eating that boot in the Gold Rush. Now you’re suggesting kangaroo?”
I think the muscle fibre of kangaroo is better suited to making rope. Tough and dry doesn’t begin to describe it.
Skippies are tasty little buggers!
Medium rare, with a nice red wine jus, mash and beans…mmmmm.
Good point, Walter. The other interesting point is that methane is measured in parts per billion while CO2 is measured in parts per million. So even when we multiply the CH4 by 21 to get CO2 eqivalent we are still left with a tiny fraction of the heating potential.
Each part per billion of CH4 x 21 still equals only 2.1% of a CO2 part per million.
And as for Diamond, the only truthful part of his book, “Collapse”, was if one were to use the title as a reference to his credibility. The guy is so ignorant and illinformed it hurts.
The ABC article shows the kangaroo industry cleverly calling on the government to fund some kangaroo consumption promotion.
Good on them, if they can fleece the tax payers then why shouldn’t they!
Actually I was in New Zealand the other day and in the New World in Wellington I store a “game section”, where Kangaroo Rump, Kangaroo Fillet and Crocodile were all available. Quite a surprise for me, but then they sell Whale meat here in some Japanese supermarkets.
Anyway, there is a market for this stuff, and if there are people out there who want to eat it, they should of course be allowed to. I’d like to try it myself.
But I’ll be watching with interest to see whether the Aussie government is willing to fund it’s Kangaroo harvesting industry at the expense of it’s beef production industry.
Also – Garnaut suggests farming? Why? If one is pushing Kangaroo meat for environmental reasons it seems to make more sense to simply use the wild ones sustainably.
When I was about 6 years old, I went on a camping/fishing/hunting trip, with my dad, & some of his mates.
6 months later we discovered the tape worm I had contracted eating kangaroo meat, poorly cooked I believe, on that trip.
It took over 2 years, & 3 trips to hospital before that thing was gone.
You can eat your wild killed game meat, I’ll give it a miss, thanks.
In the late 60’s, I looked at farming Kangaroos. Set up was fairly high because you need strong HIGH fences.
They are amazing creatures, The lady Roo (of some species) can become pregnant while she is pregnant/sucklng.
She can hold a joey until she needs it. Drought, another joey etc can make her stall developement of the next foetus. She has four teats (taps as one of my customers said) and each gives out roo milk for various stages of joey developement.
The problem with roos in the wild is worms. Worming can be controlled in farmed roos.
If they are farmed, they do not need to be culled and we can assure the future of our Coat of Arms.
My research did not cover methane production.
Me thinks the good Professor will be eating Crow before he is eating Roo.
Pikey
Ron
I enjoyed the images in your Murrumbidgee poem, but not the
execution of the rhymes.
I like the image of Rosco Guano eating crow.
“Skippies are tasty little buggers!”
Very true. The fillet is as tender as you could want and extremely tasty. Its great in itself and doesn’t require ‘tricking up’ with excessive spice, marinades, or the like – not that there’s anything wrong with that. Hey, I even love mutton done the right way!
Maybe Australia’s farmers can build up their domesticated kangaroo mobs from the ones in Ross Garnaut’s top paddock.
When the govt. in the form of Ross Garnaut comes into our house and tells us what to eat they have lost the plot. Stay out on the streets where you belong and remember, your job is to serve us.
Guano is a few ‘Roos short of a mob.
The problem with the farming and domestication of kangaroos is that the wild ones will become a disease risk and will need to be eradicated. Farm kangaroos in other countries, not Australia!
(By domestication I mean selective breeding for desirable traits e.g. meat production, tameness, tastiness etc)
Garnaut’s ridiculous suggestion has greatly discredited him and all his research on Climate Change. With at least six new coal mines about to go ahead in the Galilee basin in Central Queensland, more new coal mines mooted in NSW, massive roadworks and freeway construction everywhere to accomodate even more cars, (as though anyone will be able to afford to put fuel them in 5 years time)…..and Garnaut is concerned about a few cows farting……..
If thats the best solution Government advisors can come up with….we are all in a lot of trouble! Unfortunately the silly idea has caught the attention of the International media, who seem to love silly stories, (and the Australian media seems to come up with a fair few) so the nonsense has had wide overseas coverage. No wonder we are seen overseas as a cruel barbaric nation.
Pat, its just another day in the peoples republic of dumbturdistan.
We could build an entirely new city of 4 million people for only a quarter of the outlay that will be needed if Sydney is allowed to double it’s population to 8 million by 2050.
Take that a step further and we could build 8 new cities of 500,000 for only one quarter of the cost of that new city with 4 million people.
This single policy outcome would reduce the average commuting time from 3 hours each day to 20 minutes each day but the Ruddites are pissing about with already outdated car engine technology.
My rural shire has been green dominated since 1988. It has a high proportion of single mothers in rental housing but the nearest three primary schools have bare paddocks all around them. Apparently, their concept of “sustainable development” doesn’t include having houses where the kids can walk to school and the mums can dispense with the 3 o’clock trafffic jam.