Here's an article about food and the environment
#11
  Re: (...)
I found this one quite interesting...kind of funny and serious all at once...

Eating kangaroos could help fight global warming: scientist say

Wed Oct 1, 3:10 AM ET

An offbeat suggestion that Australians should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep has been given a scientific stamp of approval by the government's top climate change adviser.

The belching and farting of millions of farm animals is a major contributor to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, Professor Ross Garnaut noted in a major report to the government on global warming.

Kangaroos, on the other hand, emit negligible amounts of methane gas.

If farmers were included in a system requiring industry to buy permits for the gas they produce, the cost of meat would rise and could lead to a change in eating habits, Garnaut said in the 600 page report released Wednesday.

"For most of Australia's human history -- around 60,000 years -- kangaroo was the main source of meat," he said.

"It could again become important. However, there are some significant barriers to this change, including livestock and farm management issues, consumer resistance and the gradual nature of change in food tastes."

Garnaut cited a study looking at the potential for kangaroos to replace sheep and cattle for meat production in Australia's rangelands, where kangaroos are already harvested.

The study concludes that by 2020, beef cattle and sheep numbers could be reduced by seven million and 36 million respectively, allowing for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million now to 240 million by 2020.

This would be more than enough to replace the lost lamb and beef production, and kangaroo meat would become more profitable than cattle and sheep as the price of emissions permits increased.

Garnaut's report said livestock, mainly cattle and sheep, are responsible for some 67 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite being the national animal and appearing on the Australian coat of arms, millions of kangaroos are slaughtered in the wild each year to control their numbers and much of the meat is used for pet food.

The idea of farming them for human consumption is controversial, but many health-conscious Australians already eat kangaroo meat.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels, it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal," says Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.
"Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected, by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table."-Charles Pierre Monselet, French author(1825-1888)
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#12
  Re: Here's an article about food and the environment by firechef (I found this one qui...)
Maybe if they just stopped feeding beans to the cattle, or gave them a bit of bicarb, they wouldn't have to worry about all that belching and farting.
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?
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#13
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environme by labradors (Maybe if they just s...)
Every time we drive by a dairy farm I can smell the stench of the silage that they feed them. Ground up corn "stuff" and heaven knows what else, is piled in a huge heap and left to ferment for a year. Now . . . tell ya what; feed that to any animal and I'll bet they belch and fart! I nearly hurl everytime we drive by one.

Some dairy and cattle ranches here are (somehow) capturing the methane and using it to power their facilities. That makes more sense to me than driving another species to extinction.
You only live once . . . but if you do it right once should be enough!
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#14
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environme by Harborwitch (Every time we drive ...)
It is so refreashing to talk about something other than man made carbon footprints!! In Alaska I smelled a whale belch (spout)--I can only describe it as a 70 year old animal who has eaten shrimp all his life and never brushed his teeth--it has to be a pollutant!! But I do not wish to banish the whale with the DoDo bird, the St. Louis Browns, and the SUV--the world is changing and no climatologist will ever know if his theory was correct--it takes too long to prove--I'm sorry, except for Al Gore--he knows all, he even invented the internet.
"He who sups with the devil should have a. long spoon".
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#15
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environme by Old Bay (It is so refreashing...)
Do we think that nature compensates for nature's "pollutants" for so than the rapid increases in man-made pollutants? I agree with your comments oh Resident Sage. If a bear, you know, in the woods it must be a "pollutant" as well...

Interesting "concept" of farming "wild life"...we have had farms for deer, elk, bison and the like here in North America for years it is only "natural" for the same to be considered elsewhere.
"Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected, by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table."-Charles Pierre Monselet, French author(1825-1888)
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#16
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environme by firechef (Do we think that nat...)
I can remember many many years ago living on the coast of Northern California. We had a 4 or 5 acre pasture with 2 horses. There was a small stream running down one side of the pasture.

One day we received notice that the state was thinking about putting an RV campground on the pastureland. Their reasoning was that the horses were polluting the stream. Being somewhat of a smart@$$ I called the Dept. of Fish and Game. They sent an officer out - who declared that the air pollution from the RV's and the campers would destroy the ecosystem around the stream rapidly and with consequences that would be irreversible.
You only live once . . . but if you do it right once should be enough!
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#17
  Re: Here's an article about food and the environment by firechef (I found this one qui...)
Wallabe stew was diminished in favor of Hereford in "The Man From Snowy River"--most Aussies would agree--the top of the food chain should have the choice, mate!! There were 190 Aussies on our Alaskan cruise--wonderful people--I learned all the verses to "Waltzing Matilda" during four nites in the piano bar!!
"He who sups with the devil should have a. long spoon".
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#18
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environment by Old Bay (Wallabe stew was dim...)
Nah! Why not just a whale, harp seal, and spotted owl casserole?
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?
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#19
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environme by labradors (Nah! Why not just a...)
Quote:

Nah! Why not just a whale, harp seal, and spotted owl casserole?




A Cajun friend told me you could substitute Bald Eagles and Whooping Cranes for the Spotted Owl--they all taste like chicken.
"He who sups with the devil should have a. long spoon".
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#20
  Re: Re: Here's an article about food and the environme by Old Bay ([blockquote]Quote:[h...)
That Cajun friend mention that all good recipes to them start with..."First you make a roux"???

If all of this stuff "taste like chicken" then what the %$^@ does chicken taste like???
"Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected, by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table."-Charles Pierre Monselet, French author(1825-1888)
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