DISCOVER Magazine. Science, Technology and The Future
Current Issue
Subscribe Today »
  • Renew
  • Give a Gift
  • Archives
  • Customer Service
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Newsletter
  • Health & Medicine
  • Mind & Brain
  • Technology
  • Space
  • Human Origins
  • Living World
  • Environment
  • Physics & Math
  • Video
  • Photos
  • Podcast
  • RSS
Discoblog
« Email: The Best Way to Lie
Mortgage Crisis Brings Mosquitoes—and West Nile—to Your Hot Tub »

Kangaroo: It’s What’s for Dinner in Australia

kangaroo

Hungry for a kanga-burger? Replacing beef and mutton with kangaroo meat could significantly cut down on ruminant livestock emissions, according to a new report commissioned by the Australian government. Bovine belching is a massive source of methane emissions. But while a single cow can produce 300 to 500 liters of methane gas per day— enough to inflate 80 party balloons—kangaroos produce almost none. In other words, if cattle were Hummers, kangaroos would be Priuses.

As we’ve reported previously, Australian scientists have tried to fix the problem by transferring digestive bacteria from kangaroos into the guts of livestock. But this new report suggests that switching right to kangaroo meat could be a better move.

A potential model cited by the report would replace 7 million sheep and 36 million cattle with 175 million kangaroos by 2020, allowing Australia to cut about 16 megatons of carbon emissions every year. As the price of emission permits increases, kangaroo harvesting would become a lot cheaper than livestock farming. Kangaroos are hardier than livestock, and could better handle the effects of climate change like decreased water supply. They would be the ideal free range animal and yield meat that is high in protein and low in fat.

Still, there’s the 175 million kangaroo question: Will anyone eat it?

Australia’s Food Companion magazine thought the name may be the key factor in selling kangaroo to consumers. So in 2005, they held a naming contest to pick a more palatable title. Here are a few entries we liked: kangarly, maroo, marsupan, jumpmeat, or MOM (meat of marsupials).

Out of over 2,700 entries, the winning name was australus, though the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia has yet to adopt it officially.

What would you like your kangaroo meat called?

Image: Flickr/ natmeister

Share

October 2nd, 2008 1:26 PM Tags: Australia, kangaroo, methane
by Nina Bai in Pollution Solutions (& Disasters), The Wide (& Strange) World of Animals | 6 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

  • http://www.jonathannguyen.net Jonathan Nguyen

    Hey Nina

    Kangaroo meat is great! Requires some precision in cooking though because it’s so lean.

  • Tyler Pittmon

    wallabeef

  • http://leftwingfox.blogspot.com Left_Wing_Fox

    Actually, there is apparently research being done into the differences in bacteria found in kangaroos and cattle. Apparently kangaroo bacteria use a reductive metabolic pathway that produces acetic acid instead of methane as the primary byproduct. It’s hoped that by engineering the gut flora of cattle, they can not only reduce methane emissions, but increase the amount of food energy cows process; since they can digest acetic acid.

    Short term though, it’s a good idea to consume local wildlife sustainably instead of driving them out to make room for imported ones.

  • TFYOV

    The colossal inanity of the concept leaves me confounded for appropriate words. Have those responsible really not heard about veggie burgers and seitan? Do they really want to do the right thing for our environment or, in their incredulous scientific service, are they attempting to fit an insignificant finding to an application?
    “What would you like your kangaroo meat called?”, now that says a lot. Is there some problem calling it what it is? Perhaps the problem is that when one says “kangaroo” they get this image of a cute animal and then realize it was killed, slaughtered, butchered, burnt and slapped onto a plate for their enjoyment. I suppose there are some that have no problem with the imagery, then there are some who had no problem consuming “long pork” also.
    The enviro-poseurs should do some actual reading of how best to combat bovine methane emission, put down the “hamburger” and go veg.

  • http://questgarden.com/!australia rebecca

    it’s good

  • olivia

    dat sounds super good right now





    • About the Blog

      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

    • Twitter

      Follow @discovermag
    • Facebook

    • Twidget

      Add Tweets
    • Archives

      Archives

      • February 2012
      • January 2012
      • December 2011
      • November 2011
      • October 2011
      • September 2011
      • August 2011
      • July 2011
      • June 2011
      • May 2011
      • April 2011
      • March 2011
      • February 2011
      • January 2011
      • December 2010
      • November 2010
      • October 2010
      • September 2010
      • August 2010
      • July 2010
      • June 2010
      • May 2010
      • April 2010
      • March 2010
      • February 2010
      • January 2010
      • December 2009
      • November 2009
      • October 2009
      • September 2009
      • August 2009
      • July 2009
      • June 2009
      • May 2009
      • April 2009
      • March 2009
      • February 2009
      • January 2009
      • December 2008
      • November 2008
      • October 2008
      • September 2008
      • August 2008
      • July 2008
      • June 2008
      • May 2008
      • April 2008
      • March 2008
      • February 2008
      • January 2008
      • December 2007
      • November 2007
      • October 2007
      • September 2007
      • August 2007
      • July 2007
      • June 2007
      • May 2007
      • April 2007
      • February 2007
      • January 2007
      • December 2006
      • November 2006
      • October 2006
      • September 2006


  • Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us