Kangaroos, you see, produce a relatively low amount of methane gas compared with other animals. Research shows that Australia could lower its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 3% if Aussies were to decide to give up all beef and pork in favor of the Other Red Meat, kangaroo.
Countries that aren’t blessed with a native kangaroo population are being encouraged to take other steps:
Fortunately for those of us living outside of Australia, other countries are embarking on similar projects to reduce methane by farming low-emissions animals. Examples include springbok in South Africa, red deer in the UK, and bison in the United States. With CO2 emissions from other industries showing no signs of slowing down, eating a red deer burger doesn’t sound so bad.
Compared to a kanga-burger, it sounds downright appetizing. Actually, eating bison is no hardship. As many of you probably know, it is as good as beef, if a little more robust in flavor.
What’s that? A burger? Um…no thanks.
Still, that kangaroo idea might be a little over the top. If we really want to cut methane emissions from livestock,we need to eliminate farms altogether rather than changing what we raise there. The unappetizing-sounding solution is vat meat. It will provide us nutritionally enhanced meat that doesn’t come at the price of animal suffering and that doesn’t cause massive environmental damage.
And it will only taste like chicken when it really is chicken.