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Australian scientists claim eating cuddly kangaroos instead of cows will help reduce greenhouse gases.
One minute, Skippy's bouncing happily through the Outback with not a care in the world. The next, he's heralded as the latest superfood - delicious, nutritious and fabulously low fat - the natural solution to global warming.
A special Greenpeace report claims 20 million Aussies can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint by eating less beef and more of the local wildlife. Cows and sheep release vast quantities of methane through belching and flatulence, but kangaroos release virtually none.
The report says cutting beef consumption by 20 per cent (and thus the amount of cattle reared) and substituting it with kangaroo steaks, mince, burgers and ribs would reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by a staggering 15 megatons by 2020.
On top of their impressive personal hygiene, kangaroos make model livestock. They need less food than sheep or cattle, adapt better to drought, and are far less damaging to the fragile topsoil than their bovine counterparts.
And they don't taste bad, either. With a distinctive gamey flavour, very tender, best brushed with oil and cooked rare to medium-rare (to stop it becoming dry and chewy), it looks just like prime roast beef.
None of which is good news for poor Skippy, who's not had the best of times lately. Since 2002, drought has halved the population to 25 million, and 10 to 12 per cent of those are killed and harvested yearly.
But modern Australians are uncharacteristically sentimental about an animal that's a national icon. Kangaroo meat is a $100-million-a-year Government-sanctioned industry, but the industry has a long slog ahead. Of 30 million kg of kangaroo meat produced each year, Australians eat less than a third - 10 million kg, as opposed to 70 million of beef - and Australian websites are awash with bloggers who call it "dogfood" or "Aussiehog" and claim they'd "rather eat my mother's pet cat".
