Credit: Andrew Lee
Lean and healthy
Then there’s the health benefits of kangaroo meat: it’s very lean – it contains less than two per cent fat, about forty per cent of which is polyunsaturated. So a regular diet of roo meat can significantly lower blood cholesterol levels. And, of course, it’s free-range and organic, and roos have not been dosed with growth-promoters, veterinary products and pesticides.
Trawl the web and you’ll find plenty of scaremongering about the alleged dangers kangaroos and the disease toxoplasmosis. The disease is spread by cats (and does great harm to native animals) and if meat of any kind is contaminated with cat faeces, it can transmit toxoplasmosis. But there have been no medically documented cases of toxoplasmosis being transmitted by eating kangaroo. Proper hygiene and cooking is, of course, called for with any kind of meat.
As for animal welfare issues, an animal that dies unexpectedly from a single bullet suffers far less trauma and stress than one aggressively herded up, trucked to market and processed through an abattoir. All kangaroos die of something.
Oh, and forget that nonsense about Australians being alone in eating their national symbol: Canadians scoff down their maple syrup and the French relish their coq au vin.
Did I mention that a juicy barbecued roo loin fillet is delicious? Cook it hot but keep it rare. It’s a yummy way to do your bit for the planet.
Bob Beale is a writer and the co-author of Going Native, a guide to utilising Australia’s natural resources sustainably.
common sense
We buy our Naturoo every week at our local IGA in Brisbane the Lemon pepper and wattleseed steaks are just great.
Eating kangaroo has to be the most common sense food there idea there is. Why on earth do we think that we have to import all these animals that don't belong here and do so much damage to our eco systems.
I only hope that common sense becomes much more common - before its too late.
roo rocks
I was trying to avoid beef for environmental reasons, but I'm a keen carnivore. Roo saved my life! I now have roo steaks, roo bolognese, roo curry. Roo is a really tasty meat, and an idea substitute for beef.
Kangaroo meat cannot replace livestock meat!
Kangaroos are perfect Australians as they have had millions of years to adapt and co-exist in our environment without damaging it. They actually add value to native grasses with their tails and urine, and eat the tops of grasses to reduce fire risk. However, their small amount of meat takes years to "grow", not like livestock, and they cannot be farmed or handled. The meat is not healthy as there are bacteria and parasites. Fencing would need to be at least 2 meters high. The costs would be prohibitive. How can we eat our national icons, anyway? A post-carbon age should be vegan, anyway! Protein from plant-based sources, with added herbs and spices, is much more efficient and humane. Get over eating meat!
Vivienne
Kangaroo meat cannt replace beef
I agree. At some points people cannot eat what they call national icon. How do u imagine the slaughter of Kangaroo with its beautiful image that is widespread around the world?? Otherwise, Australian beef is well-known in the world because of its tender. To balance the sustainable development between nature and human that is people should have a ‘’good attitude’’ about environment. It is the most important things than we eat or not eat something. Just think how many people go to supermarket and buy recycling toilet paper? Or how many people keep using grey water? Anyway, we still eat meat but reduce the amount of meat by adding more veggie and rice. This combination is wonderful as it can balance protein from meat and essential vitamins and mineral and fiber from veggie to our body system.
Impossible to replace beef with kangaroo
One would think that a writer for a scientific journal could cope with simple mathematics. It is not possible to replace beef with meat from kangaroos.
To produce the same amount of meat from kangaroos as is currently produced by the beef industry would require over fifty times the total kangaroo population (not fifty times the current quota, fifty times the total population) be killed and processed each year.
The current kangaroo population has declined markedly over the past ten years due to drought and the millions already killed each year by the commercial kangaroo industry and under damage mitigation permits. The commercial kangaroo industry rarely meets it's quota because there are not enough kangaroos left in their killing zones to shoot.
Some research into the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon in America in the early 1900's will show some glaring comparisons to what is currently happening to Australia's kangaroos.
kangaroos
Oh please. Doesn't anyone understand the ecological role of kangaroos, they re-vegetate native grasses which is why they exist in large mobs. Native grasses are almost extinct in Australia having been ripped up, cleared as with most agricultural land.
The kangaroo industry has devastated kangaroo populations. The massive cruelty involved in the industry has been the focus of major international environmental campaigns.
Kangaroos cannot be farmed, they suffer from capture myopathy.
Get rid of hard hooved animals on marginal land; cut out coal mining, bring in campaigns to cut back on our emissions but leave our wildlife alone. Australia has one of the worst records in the world for fauna extinction.
Sue A.
Kangaroos
Once again we see that old furphy that putting a dollar value on wildlife is an incentive to preserve them. That really worked for tigers, elephants, thylacines, dodos, pandas, and countless other (now) endangered species didn't it? Why would it suddenly work now? The human species is motivated by short-term financial gain.
disgusting
i think it is disgusting that people eat kangaroo meat i love meat myself but the way the hunters kill joeys is excruciating the ether beat it to death or stomp on its head while the other joey runs away and dies of starvation because it still needs its mother. i have eaten kangaroo meat myself before i found out about what they did to joeys from a friend