Right: Methane? Who, me? This relaxed-looking kangaroo, despite its size, produces little methane to contribute to the Earth's greenhouse gases.
Arguments in favour of farming kangaroos
1. Methane from sheep and cattle is a major greenhouse gasCattle, sheep and goats are responsible for 60 percent of global methane emissions. Like carbon dioxide, methane is a greenhouse gas that is a real threat to global warming and climate change.
Dr George Wilson of the University of New South Wales has stated. 'Sheep and cattle constitute 11 per cent of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions.'
A paper in the journal Conservation Letters has argued that reducing cattle and sheep populations and increasing the kangaroo numbers to 175 million by 2020 would lower greenhouse gas emissions by 16 megatonnes, or 3 per cent of Australia's total emissions. Dr Wilson is the paper's lead author.
The final Garnaut Report indicated, 'The sheep and cattle industries are highly emissions intensive'.
In Australia, enteric (intestinal) fermentation emissions from livestock (mainly sheep and cattle) account for about 67 per cent of agricultural emissions (DCC 2008b).
Cattle and sheep production also accounts for a significant proportion of emissions from agricultural soils, and beef production is responsible for some emissions from savanna fire and land clearing currently limited opportunities for the reduction of methane emissions.
In July, 2008, Geoff Russell, a mathematician and computer programmer; Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University and Barry Brook, Sir Hubert Wilkins professor of climate change at the University of Adelaide, stated, 'Australia's methane emissions come primarily from 28 million cattle, 88 million sheep and a bunch of leaky coal mines. The livestock emissions, on their own, will cause significantly more warming in the next 20 years than all our coal-fired power stations.'
2. Kangaroos are an environmentally sustainable form of livestock
A recent study conducted by the University of New South Wales indicated that farming kangaroos instead of sheep and cattle in Australia could cut by almost a quarter the greenhouse gases produced by grazing livestock.
The study claimed that Methane from the foregut of cattle and sheep constitutes 11 percent of Australia's total greenhouse emissions.
Kangaroos digest their food via a different process and produce negligible amounts of methane.
Removing seven million cattle and 36 million sheep by 2020 and replacing them with 175 million kangaroos, to produce the same amount of meat, could lower national greenhouse gases by 3 percent a year, the University of New South Wales study indicated.
The final Garnaut Report makes a similar point. It states, 'Australian marsupials emit negligible amounts of methane ... This could be a source of international comparative advantage for Australia in livestock production. For most of Australia's human history-around 60 000 years-kangaroo was the main source of meat. It could again become important.'
The report further states, '[Researchers] have modelled the potential for kangaroos to replace sheep and cattle for meat production in Australia's rangelands, where kangaroos are already harvested. They conclude that by 2020 beef cattle and sheep numbers in the rangelands could be reduced by 7 million and 36 million respectively, and that this would create the opportunity for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million today to 240 million by 2020.
They estimate that meat production from 175 million kangaroos would be sufficient to replace the forgone lamb and beef meat production, and that meat production from kangaroos would become more profitable than cattle and sheep when emissions permit prices exceed $40 per tonne CO2-e. The net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be about 16 Mt CO2-e per year.'
Kangaroos also do far less damage to the land than do cattle or sheep. A 2004 ABC science program, 'Skippy Size Me' stated, 'A far-reaching conservation benefit of a growing kangaroo industry is that it may let graziers reduce the numbers of sheep they are running, or do away with them altogether.
Reducing sheep numbers has the potential to undo some of the damage done on the rangelands over the last two centuries. Unlike soft-pawed kangaroos, sheep have hard hooves, which over time have broken the ground, exposing the soil to the elements. What hasn't been blown or washed away has been compacted, totally changing the drainage properties of the soils. This has had a marked effect on the vegetation of the region, which in turn has impacted on much of the native wildlife.'
3. Kangaroo meat is growing in popularity
In the past decade, the proportion of Australians eating kangaroo meat has risen from 51 to 58.5 percent, according to a recent national survey.
The survey indicates around 15 percent of people are regular consumers of kangaroo meat, eating it four or more times per year, while more than 50 percent of people have tried it (33 percent) or are open to trying it (21 percent).
Prepared for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, the report reveals higher demand for kangaroo meat than for other game, with six percent of households buying kangaroo meat at least monthly.
It has been claimed that consumption could readily be increased with appropriate promotion. One of the bases on which it could be promoted is the health benefits of the meat.
CSIRO Project Leader, Dr Andre Wright, has noted that kangaroo meat is very lean with a two per cent fat content. Dr Wright has also noted, 'Kangaroo meat also has high levels of protein, iron and zinc.'
It has also been argued that consumers need to be made aware of what a relative disease-free meat kangaroo is. Kangaroos suffer from few of the diseases associated with domestic animals such as sheep and cattle. On average, only 0.7% of all kangaroo carcasses inspected show signs of any sort of pathological condition, which is the same figure we get from abattoirs that process domestic stock.
4. There is a large overseas market for kangaroo meat that could be met by commercial rearing
It has been noted that there is a growing overseas demand for kangaroo meat which the current free range rearing and harvesting through hunting cannot necessarily meet.
Australia's kangaroo industry began exporting kangaroo meat to Europe in 1959 in response to interest from the European game meat industry. Today kangaroo meat and skins are exported all
over the world. Australia exports kangaroo meat to twenty-one countries.
The European Union is the largest importer of kangaroo products. Kangaroo meat is also exported to the United States and many parts of Asia.Australian kangaroos are a popular delicacy in some of the finest restaurants in France and Germany. They are stocked on British supermarket shelves and are used in Russian sausages.
In September, 2005, professional shooter Ron Cugley, from Deniliquin in southern NSW, was reported as stating, 'People out there are screaming for kangaroo meat.' Mr Cugley noted that drought years made it very difficult to supply demand.
Australian Meats general manager, Wayne Earls, has stated, 'The prices for kangaroo meat from overseas are very good but there is a shortage of supply.'
Kangaroo Industry executive officer John Kelly has also noted, 'The industry is at its most buoyant. We are doing well on export and it [kangaroo meat] is being accepted in the local market - it is in Coles nationally now...We export to over 60 countries and have grown at a rate of around 5 per cent per annum for the last 20 years. There are not many rural industries that can say that.'
Strict quotas govern the number of kangaroos harvested each year. This is an attempt to ensure the long term sustainability of the industry. In 2007 about 3.2 million animals were 'harvested'.
There are those who argue that rearing kangaroos commercially would help to reduce the impact of drought on the supply of kangaroo meat. It has also been suggested that commercial kangaroo-rearing would free the industry from the limiting effect of the quotas imposed to protect wild populations.
5. Australia is investigating mixed harvesting practices to encourage the sustainable exploitation of native fauna on farming properties
Australia has already undertaken a number of research projects aimed at increasing the sustainable use of native species in agriculture. The focus of these studies is the use of kangaroos. The most prominent of these research groups is the FATE (Future of Australia's Threatened Ecosystems) Program, coorinated through the University of New South Wales.
The FATE (Future of Australia's Threatened Ecosystems) Program aims to investigate the value of sustainably using native species in Australia's threatened ecosystems to enhance the long-term conservation of Australian biodiversity and through this process to increase the resilience and economic viability of rural and regional Australia. It seeks to encourage the development of commercial activities by rural communities that involve the sustainable use of wildlife, and to monitor the ecological, economic and social consequences of these activities.
FATE is the first Australian land management program to assess whether land management programs that include sustainable utilisation of indigenous species will enhance ecosystem function, regional biodiversity and the economy of rural and regional communities.
Kangaroo harvesting is probably the wildlife enterprise currently most likely to deliver a significant return in the degrading rangelands of New South Wales.