Right: Culling of kangaroos on Defence Department land recently drew protests, including claims that kangaroos were an endangered species. This was disputed by farmers and government "experts".Further implications
The question would ultimately appear to be one of viability. There appears to be no disputing that were it possible to farm kangaroos there would be environmental advantages. Kangaroos' digestion processes do not produce methane at the level that cattle and sheep do.However, there remain serious questions over the viability of kangaroo farming. There are containment and animal management issues. There are also very different meat yields per animal when comparing kangaroos to cattle and sheep.
Farmers currently involved in producing meat from the farming of cattle and sheep are opposed to such a change in livestock. They claim that kangaroo farming is impractical. It also seems likely that they would be reluctant to incur the trouble and expense involved even were kangaroo farming shown to be viable.
There is also the question of public acceptance. Though consumption of kangaroo meat appears to be on the increase, customer demand is still relatively very low when compared to the demand for beef and lamb which are very widely consumed and accepted.
However, Professor Garnaut is not recommending that kangaroos replace cattle and sheep. Rather, he has recommended that kangaroo farming be developed in those marginal rangelands were cattle and sheep are currently reared but where they continued farming is likely to prove increasingly problematic.
Australia currently has a well-developed and growing kangaroo meat industry. This is supplied by the hunting of wild kangaroos under quota. The FATE (Future of Australia's Threatened Ecosystems) Program is looking at ways of integrating such harvesting into the meat growing practices of commercial farms. If successful such projects may demonstrate a means of making Professor Garnaut's recommendations feasible.