Luke Bowen, Executive Officer of the NTCA, has pointed out that trying to muster kangaroos would generate lots of fuel emissions, and that naturally-occurring sunshine and rain-fed grass are the major inputs to the Territory’s cattle industry.

Mr Bowen was responding to the Government-commissioned report on climate change by the Canberra economist, Professor Ross Garnaut.

One of the more controversial recommendations in the final draft of the Garnaut Report was that Australians should turn back to kangaroos as a prime source of red meat.

Professor Garnaut said that if a way to reduce methane emissions from livestock was not found, seven million cattle and 36 million sheep could be replaced by 175 million farmed kangaroos.

“We all support the need to reduce greenhouse gases, but imagine trying to master a herd of kangaroos, and the fuel emissions fuel emissions generated with all the extra driving around around after them,” Mr Bowen said.

“I doubt if it is possible to muster and transport kangaroos in the first place.”

Mr Bowen also challenged the assertion that methane emissions from Australian livestock are high on a per capita basis.

“Of course we have a high emission rate compared to our population, because comparatively few Australians produce so much output from primary industry over a vast area,” Mr Bowen said.

*Full story in this week’s North Queensland Register, out Thursday.