Slog - Comments on Good Earth Food http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food If you want to save this... ...Meaning, if you want the human race to continue, then you must turn this animal... Into this... Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist. The methane gas produced by sheep and cows through belching and flatulence is more potent than carbon dioxide in the damage it can cause to the environment. But kangaroos produce virtually no methane because their digestive systems are different. Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services, urges farming them. He says they have a different set of micro-organisms... Copyright 2008 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:27:18 -0800 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:53:31 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Abby Why not? I'm in.

]]> Abby http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098143 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098143 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:25:13 -0800 Comment by PC Kangaroo saltimboca.

]]> PC http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098145 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098145 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:26:36 -0800 Comment by Hernandez Works for me. The one time I ate kangaroo I thought it tasted good.

]]> Hernandez http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098157 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098157 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:30:50 -0800 Comment by homage to me I've never seen a kangaroo that looked quite so...human.

]]> homage to me http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098158 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098158 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:31:27 -0800 Comment by Ziggity If only they served these at Outback.

]]> Ziggity http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098159 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098159 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:32:09 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Kangaroo is excellent. It's not very fatty, so it's not going to satisfy that hardcore steak lover, but it's delicious and flavorful "bush tucker". And kangaroos are a major pest; they're almost perfectly adapted to take advantage of the changes wrought on the Australian landscape by farming, and their population is exploding as a result. You can't drive down an Australian road for more than a hundred yards without seeing a dead roo, wallaby, or wombat. Unfortunately the smaller and more interesting marsupials are severely endangered by some of these same conditions.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098160 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098160 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:32:25 -0800 Comment by Shelby Cobra Fuuuuck that noise. I'm going to Burgermaster.

]]> Shelby Cobra http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098169 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098169 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:38:12 -0800 Comment by NapoleonXIV Why would I want to save the Moon?

Blow it up, I say!

]]> NapoleonXIV http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098173 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098173 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:38:49 -0800 Comment by Hartiepie I'll be dead in, say, 15 years and I bet NOBODY will be thankful if I change my eating habits or recycle my newspaper. ("Welcome! This is the day we commemorate Hartiepie who switched from incandescent to florescent bulbs in 2008...")

Any change I could make is wiped out instantly by corporate and political blunders that are measured in billions and trillions, and happen in seconds as opposed to my decades.

Now, gimme me my hamburger....

]]> Hartiepie http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098178 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098178 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:40:53 -0800 Comment by Lloyd Clydesdale Agreed, Homage. Where was that Roo picture taken, Madison Park?

]]> Lloyd Clydesdale http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098180 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098180 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:42:38 -0800 Comment by yakdan Not eating meat is even greener. Instead of taking the feed and water to produce this earthling for slaughter you can consume those items yourself.

]]> yakdan http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098181 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098181 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:42:40 -0800 Comment by NapoleonXIV Put a pair of sunglasses on him and you'd have Joe Camel's gay cousin...

]]> NapoleonXIV http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098189 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098189 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:46:32 -0800 Comment by Lloyd Clydesdale It bears speculating that cow-tippers and sheep fuckers might needs be put on notice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36tBS6dXo-U&feature=related

]]> Lloyd Clydesdale http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098204 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098204 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:53:51 -0800 Comment by Mike of Renton I'm willing to try it.

Thad said, did anyone stop and think that maybe the Australian doctor is pushing kangaroo meat because it would be good for the Australian economy?

]]> Mike of Renton http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098214 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098214 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:56:58 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Yakdan, kangaroo doesn't require and feed or water; they forage for those items (and take them away from other animals). That is in fact the purpose of large ruminants and other foraging animals: to convert food humans cannot digest (like cellulose in grass) into food that humans can (like meat). Food animals that forage do not take resources from humans.

This is the same reason that lamb from New Zealand (which eats only wild grasses) is better for the environment than lamb from most parts of the US (which eats harvested and processed feed), even when you consider the (fairly trivial) amount of jet fuel it takes to get it here.

Kangaroo is the lowest-impact meat you could imagine; and in fact harvesting that meat would PROTECT cereal crops that they now steal from farmers despite their best efforts to prevent them from doing so. As it stands, kangaroos are gigantic vermin.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098238 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098238 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:10:58 -0800 Comment by flamingbanjo An added benefit to 'roos would be that they're less destructive to topsoil in areas where they graze because, unlike cows, they don't have hooves that tear up the soil where they graze (not that there's a lot of grazing going on in factory farm feedlots anyway.) Bison are lower impact for the same reason. Loss of topsoil is going to be a big agricultural problem within our lifetime, right on the heels of shortages of potable water.

Of course, switching to a vegan diet would probably be the lowest possible impact and highest yield all around. But steps like switching to less destructive livestock for meat might be a good idea if by some wacky chance Earth's cultures prove unwilling to completely abandon eating flesh for sustenance.

]]> flamingbanjo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098240 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098240 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:12:52 -0800 Comment by Mahtli69 I thought that Outback already served kangaroo.

]]> Mahtli69 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098262 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098262 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:24:16 -0800 Comment by Greg So, uh, since just about every other time in history that humans have screwed around with ecosystems by introducing new animals it's caused massive ecological devastation, what makes you think this is going to be different?

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098263 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098263 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:24:38 -0800 Comment by flamingbanjo #18: Kangaroos are native to Australia.

]]> flamingbanjo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098274 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098274 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:33:30 -0800 Comment by treacle Eatin' 'Roos is all well an' good, mate, tasty they is. But seerisly now... think perhaps that SHIPPING 'roo meat all th' way fr'm down unda' isn't gonna cost a pritty penny or two? Fewl bein' wot it is an' all.

Naahh.. for you Yanks, RABBITS ARE THE NEW BEEF. Local, cheap, quiet... delish.

Fire up th' bunny barby... Ah'm comin' f' dinnah.

]]> treacle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098286 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098286 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:51:34 -0800 Comment by Fnarf What tears up the topsoil isn't hooves, it's plows. Most of the Plains already lost all their topsoil when they turned the grass upside down, as the Indians used to say. Properly grazed cattle actually helps the grass to grow, because they nip the stems at just the right point to stimulate new growth -- and they fertilize it too. That's the magic of the buffalo-prairie grass ecosystem -- they feed each other.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098288 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098288 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:52:30 -0800 Comment by jrrrl eating beef is the absolute worst thing you can do for the environment. it's also the least progressive thing you can do. if people stopped eating beef, global warming would be SOLVED. as well as a host of other public health and environmental disasters.

]]> jrrrl http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098339 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098339 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:45:23 -0800 Comment by K I remember when going green meant not eating meat.

Isn't that even more environmentally sound, after all?

]]> K http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098346 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098346 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:50:19 -0800 Comment by Lisa I think it's funny that vegetarians/vegans still think *not* eating meat equals saving the environment.

FYI; soy production is one of the main causes of Amazon deforestation. The huge demand for soy is causing more trees to be depleted than logging and as such the smoke from burning trees has caused Brazil to become on of the top 4 global greenhouse gas producers. So you may not be eating their flesh but you are aiding in destroying thier home.

Good article with horrible title:
http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2006/07/18/4/


It is important to note however, that soy is also mass produced in order to feed livestock. So meat eaters are still at fault... but just wanted to note that veggies are not innocent either.

I think it basically boils down more so to the fact that there are just too damn many of us.

]]> Lisa http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098357 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098357 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:01:33 -0800 Comment by Greg @19: Maybe I should have been more specific. Charles and others here are advocating replacing beef with kangaroo for most people's meat. Unless everyone on Earth moves to Australia, or unless all the world's supply of kangaroo meat is raised there and shipped out, that means introducing kangaroos onto the other continents, thereby unleashing ecological changes whose consequences we cannot know.

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098377 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098377 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:10:37 -0800 Comment by Mrs. Jarvie Sigh. I live in Australia and kangaroo meat is not available in my area. I can hunt them myself, if I buy a gun and a freezer chest and can make friends with a local farmer who will let me hunt on his land. Why can't Australia lead the way with popularising kangaroo meat?!?

]]> Mrs. Jarvie http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098391 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098391 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:18:13 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Roos might work in Oz.

But here in the grasslands and scrublands of Murricuh, we use bison.

And in Antartica ... penguins and seals.

Yum.

(ever eaten dried krill ... wow, and I though dried shrimp was bad)

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098399 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098399 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:25:05 -0800 Comment by COMTE Personally, I could go with an all-buffalo diet - I actually prefer it to most non-USDA Prime cuts of beef anyway.

]]> COMTE http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098433 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098433 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:50:22 -0800 Comment by Emmakat I think the sole commenter on your linked article #24 says it all, soy being produced for animal feed. I was all ready to feel more informed about something, then I end up with a 15 line long article no one wants to comment on. Boo.

]]> Emmakat http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098445 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098445 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:04:28 -0800 Comment by Fnarf The kangaroo pie and kangaroo pizza at the Australian Heritage Hotel in The Rocks, Sydney, is pretty terrific. Beer's not too shabby, either. Not everything in The Rocks is completely touristed out.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098447 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098447 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:05:58 -0800 Comment by mickey in AR At 21 cattle and bison arent comparable. bison and native prairies evolved togther. But cattle in north america single out certain plants and eat it to the nub. causing more problems. bison eat the upper tender parts of native plants.

]]> mickey in AR http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098527 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098527 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:14:08 -0800 Comment by sssss @24: All your un-precious cows ("yum," blah blah blah) eat way more soybeans than humanstock could dream of. Cows are so damn big, and there's too damn many of them. Leave the vegans out of it. This one's on the heads of the twice-daily beef eaters.

]]> sssss http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098593 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098593 Enviro Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:11:01 -0800 Comment by mat Roo also makes a delicious Bologneise or Curry. It is a bit hard to get it right in a plainer stew. You generally need to add some ginger early to reduce the gamey taste. And cook only as directed or it gets really tough.

Kangaroo must be Hunted not Farmed. So there is no industrial cruelty.

]]> mat http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098691 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1098691 Enviro Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:14:30 -0800 Comment by Lisa @29 & 33

I mentioned that in my original comment. So um, thanks for re-iterating the obvious... I guess...

]]> Lisa http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1099030 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/good_earth_food#c1099030 Enviro Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:53:31 -0800