Eat a Kangaroo--Save the Planet?
As far as environmental ethics issues go, this one takes the cake. But research done in New Zealand by the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium suggest that eating meat from animals that produce significant amounts of gases that harm the environment simply will not do. Instead, eat a kangaroo!
Before, I make this sound too much like a Dr. Seuss book, this was reported by The New Scientist, and there is good science behind the claim. Ruminants (animals that emit through their chewing of cud) carbon dioxide contribute a significant amount of greenhouse gas. As the article puts it, quite eloquently:
Worldwide, livestock burps are responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions - more than produced from all forms of transport combined.
Now, is the solution to eat roos? I'm not so sure. There are chickens after all, sea creatures, and other things that do not burp. But the point is well made, the more of these livestock we humans consume the more we contribute to the greenhouse gas problem and climate change. That's something to think about before you order your next lamb chop.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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A great idea! I'm a country-bred Australian who loves our native wildlife, even had a few as pets, and I couldn't agree more with the idea of Kangaroo steak for dinner. They're native to the country, are definitely not endangered (or likely to become so), take very little capital or set-up to farm, and have little impact on the native environment (all in contrast to cattle or sheep). To top it off, they produce some of the leanest meat available on the market. The only issue is psychological - most people have been conditioned to think 'sheep, cow, pig' = meat, 'kangaroo' = cute native animal that must be protected.
While we're at it, lets round up all the feral goats and start serving them up too - again, lean meat, and removing a foreign pest that is destroying our native environment.
- by Roo lover on Feb 21, 2009 at 11:23 PM | link
i love kangaroo
- by micheal on Sep 6, 2009 at 2:01 PM | link