Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.
"Fourteen per cent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep," said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland Government.
Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers and graziers. "Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 per cent more energy out of the feed they are eating," said Dr Klieve.
I've been wondering about this ever since I learned about fecal bacteriotherapy!
Huh. Now if they could reverse engineer it, they could make a mint in the natural gas business.
(Don't mind me. I just read Zodiac again.)
Hey, now there's an idea! What if they make the bovine kangaroo farts smell like mint?
Increased tourism to Australia and cattle-producing areas?
Suddenly I5 by Coalinga will be much more pleasant?
Then you could actually open your windows if you don't have AC, and all you'll smell is a minty-fresh breeze with a lot of mooing in it.
I love it that searching for "cowschwitz" on maps.google.com actually works...
I imagine that the person who coined that phrase is probably the same one to first say "sheeple".
or people could just stop eating meat.
damn... thats commie talk.
Once we can start changing our biology to that of an actual herbivore and change our brain structure so that meat is no longer appetizing, I'm right with you.
However, so long as I still have the biology of an omnivore, I intend to eat like one.
I'm partial to the idea of making meat grow on trees, myself.
I like where this is going :)
I'm sorry, but I refuse to eat meat that wasn't once sentient.
New Harvest may be of interest to you, in case you weren't already aware of it.
Given overpopulation, yaddayadda, surely we should be aiming for a scavenger diet?
Rancid leftovers for everyone!
LOL, Malthusians.
Have you ever eaten Kangaroo? It's awful!
I've eaten kangaroo. More than once. It's all in the cooking.
OK, I can believe that.
Just like babies! Or any other meat really, I guess.
Walkabout, an Australian-theme chain bar/restaurant in the UK, sell kangaroo burgers. They're nice.
Rather than spending millions transferring bacteria between species to reduce the methane output of cows, why not spend the same money developing more efficient methane collection systems for the same cows? Okay, sticking complicated tube systems up their arses probably only adds to the inhumanity of industrial farming, but at least farmers could reduce their grid energy usage.
I need some of that bacteria.
Oh shi, did I just say that?