Skippy can solve Global Warming!

Or so it said on our local news today following on from recommendations from the Garnaut report. Well maybe Kangaroos can’t save us but it seems that if we all traded in our beef steak for some Kangaroo meat emissions would drop and the world would be a better place!

Cows are windy creatures emitting tons of methane every day. Kangaroo’s don’t suffer the same flatulence issues and therefore contribute less to global warming. They are also native to our (Australian) shores and so are less impactful on our environment. But is this really a solution or just a gimmick?

The Australian beef industry is booming as demand rises from Japan, Korea and other Asian nations. Times are good with recent wetter weather meaning that livestock is thriving.  On top of this the Australian dollar is making us very competitive against the USA and other producers. However, many people are becoming aware of the impact of our diet on the environment. According to New Scientist last week (What is your dinner doing to the climate, September 11th 2008) livestock accounts for 18% of manmade greenhouse emissions. Ruminants are the worst offenders producing methane which traps heat 21 times more effectively than carbon dioxide.

So, will swapping steak for Kangaroo solve our problem? Well, no! You still have to rear the meat – only 5-25% of the nutrients ingested are converted to meat making it extremely inefficient. Also we get much more than meat from cows so it is impossible to cut them out entirely. However, cutting back on our beef consumption in favor of a more environmentally friendly meat would do our carbon footprint some good. It is also much better for our health being a leaner meat.

I am not sure that Skippy needs to run and hide any time soon but it will be interesting to see if the market for kangaroo meat develops. More kangaroo facts can be found by following this link: http://www.kangaroo-industry.asn.au/

The other alternative is to go veggie. I have been trying to limit my meat consumption and have at least one veggie meal a week.  Get some good vegetarian recipe ideas here:

http://www.eartheasy.com/eat_vegetarian.htm

Have fun and eat well.