- Should we swap our Lamb Roast for Camel Pie & Roo Stew?
Australians have been told to eat camels to protect the environment, just months after being urged to combat climate change by chomping on kangaroos.
The million-strong population of feral camels Down Under is the largest wild herd on earth, and they are out of control – damaging fragile ecosystems and water resources.
So, in the name of saving the country’s wildlife, a group of Aussies are taking the shrimps off the barbie and serving the humped mammal at a banquet for senior public servants in Canberra.
The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre spent three years studying the animals and eventually decided the best way to bring down their numbers is to cook them up.
“Eat a camel today, I’ve done it,” said Professor Murray McGregor of the centre.
It’s beautiful meat. It’s a bit like beef. It’s as lean as lean, it’s an excellent health food.
Professor Murray McGregor of the Desert Research centre.
Kangaroo meat is also claimed to have environmental benefits, but the rationale for farming and eating the national emblem is somewhat different, as the government outlined in October.
Millions of farm animals such as cows and sheep produce massive quantities of harmful greenhouse gases, said Professor Ross Garnaut, but kangaroos emit very little methane.
Unlike the native kangaroo, camels were introduced into Australia to carry goods across the outback in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As road travel became more widespread they were released into the wild.
With few natural predators and vast sparsely populated areas in which to roam, the populations have soared.
Camels put pressure on native species by preying on them, competing for food, destroying habitats and spreading disease.
More Debate:
Definitely.
Kangaroos are native and there are many of them. They also don’t pollute the environment as they are meant to be there.
Great site Dave,
James
How about vegetarianism? That’s the most environmentally-friendly diet of all, and with the large range of great products these days it’s a very viable alternative.
Think about how much native vegetation has been cleared in Australia for the grazing of cattle and sheep. In addition to that large areas are used to grow grain to feed farm animals (most of the food energy of which is wasted via the animals’ metabolism). Such a very inefficient way to produce food!
The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, recently pleaded with the world: ‘Please eat less meat – meat is a very carbon intensive commodity.’
Some of the issues are covered in VNV’s recent booklet: ‘Eating Up The World’
An online copy is at http://www.vnv.org.au/site/files/eatinguptheworld.pdf
By the way, there wasn’t a kangaroo problem before European settlement. There’s only been an issue with kangaroos since we converted native vegetation into pasture, thereby providing them with a vast food supply.
Hi Dave
I found this on a fellow bloggers site thought you might be interested.
Eat Your Vegetables
Eating less meat and more fruits, grains and vegetables can help the environment more than you may realize. Eating meat, eggs and dairy products contributes heavily to global warming, because raising animals for food produces many more greenhouse gas emissions than growing plants. A 2006 report by the University of Chicago found that adopting a vegan diet does more to reduce global warming than switching to a hybrid car.
Raising animals for food also uses enormous amounts of land, water, grain and fuel. Every year in the United States alone, 80 percent of all agricultural land, half of all water resources, 70 percent of all grain, and one-third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food.
Making a salad doesn’t take any more time than cooking a hamburger and it’s better for you—and for the environment.
I find the idea of eating feral camel repulsive. I enjoy most meats, particularly rabbit and goat but only farm bred stock, not wild varieties. They taste aweful. I find this whole notion of cattle causing methane polution a joke. What about gases spewing from active volcanoes?
Interesting name for a web site. I must tell my friends. I do not beleive CO2 is the cause of climate change. It is nothing more than sub-prime science prolifegrated by the green communist left.