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Eat Roo

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by Felix Salmon
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Aug 11 2008 1:28pm EDT

Eat Roo

In case you wanted another reason to eat kangaroo rather than beef: they emit just 0.003 tonnes of greenhouse gases per animal per year, compared to 1.67 tonnes per cow per year. And they don't just save in terms of methane emissions, either:

The costs of producing a kilogram of kangaroo meat from a free-ranging, minimal-input production system are lower than those for cattle or sheep. For example, there are no costs for fences or yards, internal or external parasite control, shearing, crutching, purchasing new genetic material (e.g., stud rams and bulls), branding, dehorning, or castrating.

Plus, it's high in protein, low in fat, and low in cholesterol.

For Australia, with vast quantities of land supporting a very small number of people, a mass switch from beef and lamb to kangaroo makes all the sense in the world -- especially with cattle and sheep accounting for 11% of the country's total greenhouse-gas emissions. There might even be a healthy export industry there, although it'll probably be a while before we see roo steaks in Safeway.

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