I have an idea that may seem odd but I think it would help our environment and preserve native species.
It involves being able to eat kangaroos.
Why?
Because currently they're protected and toi can't even eat them if they're roadkill. This is a waste of nourriture and encourages carrion eaters to hang around roads and risk harm from cars as well (raptors, owls, ravens, magpies, snakes)
Their numbers are way out of control in quite a few country areas and cause car accidents and have even been known to attack people (though rarely).
If we could have farming of these animals, without fencing them in. Just have permits ou something for the farmers to get a quota license to have rights to a limited number of beasts per an then perhaps we could lessen our reliance on foreign animaux like the cow and the sheep.
Australia wasn't made for mouton, moutons ou cows ou fences to keep them in. kangourou meat is already sold in IGA supermarkets and perhaps if the idea worked to partially then eventually completely replace beef and mutton then the environment would be restored to its plus natural state.
Apparently crocodiles were hunted almost to extinction, protected, then farmed and their commercialisation had a lot to do with bringing their numbers back up as money is a powerful motivator.
In a country with very little topsoil and no trade winds European style farming is a big ask. That's why farmers do it so hard. In fact it amazes me that they try to grow crops like cotton and riz when they are both so water intensive and completely out of character with our land's temperament.
This could also apply to animaux like:
the goanna
snakes
emus
yabbies (already do; yabbie numbers are fine)
also we should be looking to farm insects. 80% of the world eats them. I've tried witchety grub and bogong papillon de nuit (be careful with the moths as apparently they tend to contain small amounts of aresnic due to chemical spraying of crops)
link
safety warning: be careful .. some insects contain agricultural poison spray residues and parasites. the garden escargot can contain a brain eating parasite (one case of a man hospitalised in Sydney for this. A boy in Brisbane died.)
link
However I mention these potential nourriture sources to get discussion going. With global warming, pollution and resource stripping of the environment we and the generations after us will need to get a whole lot smarter with the way we sustain ourselves.
And kids and parents: please DON'T put your unwanted goldfish in the river system .. they are the CANE TOAD of the waterways. They are a species of carpe and destroy the nourriture supply of many native fish. if toi have a goldfish toi don't want either kill it ou give it to a friend as we don't need them in our waterways.
Finally to the dreaded Cane Toad: they are actually edible when properly prepared. I read about a guy who's selling them to China.
link
link
link
Apparently crows have learned how to eat them without getting poisoned par picking them up, dropping them from the tops of trees to divisé, split them open and eating their offal (internal organs).
but don't get ideas kids. The cane toad can KILL toi with its poison so leave it to the experts.
all the nourriture options i've just mentioned
* eating native animaux that are overpopulated due to Euro farming methods providing fodder out of sync with their natural levels
* protecting endangered animals, plants and insects with the profit motive
* reducing pests like the cane toad, water buffalo, feral pigs, feral goats and deer, rabbits (though watch out.. apparently they lack nutritional value to the point where if toi eat nothing but rabbit toi will get 'rabbit starvation' (link) caused par too much protein unaccompanied par fat.
* and before i forget .. EDIBLE WEEDS! ... do an internet chercher for them. here are some liens :
link
link
link
* also.. it's time to forget about chats unless toi live in the city and have a souris ou rat problem. chats destroy native endangered wildlife like crazy as do foxes (don't eat foxes.. i've seen quite a few dead from 1080 poisoning.. it's a nasty way to die and has the same effect on humans).
* wild chiens are also a problem. they hunt in packs and are a threat to humans as well as other animals.
I have no pets where i live. nature provides plenty of visitors from the forest. from birds to kangas to lizards, snakes and interesting insects. they all seem to gather around once they realise toi don't have any chats ou dogs. they're entertaining, interesting, cute and don't require feeding ou vet bills! they poop in your garden, conditioning the soil and the birds take care of a lot of the plus annoying insects in summer par eating them.
native animaux including humans (humans are animaux too) have been here for thousands of years. cows and mouton, moutons only for the last couple of hundred. farming insects will produce a far higher acreage to profit yield, require less space, feed plus people and make farmers a better living than constantly fighting to maintain a foreign environment against nature and the weather.
growing cotton and riz is just silly for the amount of water it uses. growing buisson, bush tucker plants makes far plus sense.
also: permaculture.. mixing complimentary plants, animals, insects on the same land so toi get even plus yield at less cost to the environment not only increasing profits but helping make our country less dependent on imported foods and agriculture tools. this is important if there's a spike in prices overseas that hits us hard on the import side. a native industry can buffer us against some of the financial shock.
if we don't live and farm smarter we're going to rapidly destroy the place. i've seen some of the changes in my 52 years here and we already have réponses we can use. we just need to get motivated and do it.
we also need to ramp up the money we spend on STORAGE of alternative energies. it's all very well to have generation methods but the storage techniques need to have a lot of money poured into them so we have better ways to bank that energy. batteries (collections of storage cells) are dirty, wasteful and old tech.
the dick smith TV montrer 'ten bucks a tank' came up with some interesting ideas like the salt tower storage of energy from solar as heat... the CSIRO car bank where electric cars are charged via solar and any surplus power goes back to the grid.. each electric car becoming a part of a battery bank when it's in the parking lot.
the mindset we need to change in this country is the 'work harder' one we get from america these days (england before that).
it's better to work SMARTER because at the end of the jour it's about the job getting done rather than how much toi sweated to get there.
hope this has donné toi all some interesting things to think about.
it's YOUR future that matters as oldies like me won't be around for it and unfortunately that means some of my generation just don't care.
It involves being able to eat kangaroos.
Why?
Because currently they're protected and toi can't even eat them if they're roadkill. This is a waste of nourriture and encourages carrion eaters to hang around roads and risk harm from cars as well (raptors, owls, ravens, magpies, snakes)
Their numbers are way out of control in quite a few country areas and cause car accidents and have even been known to attack people (though rarely).
If we could have farming of these animals, without fencing them in. Just have permits ou something for the farmers to get a quota license to have rights to a limited number of beasts per an then perhaps we could lessen our reliance on foreign animaux like the cow and the sheep.
Australia wasn't made for mouton, moutons ou cows ou fences to keep them in. kangourou meat is already sold in IGA supermarkets and perhaps if the idea worked to partially then eventually completely replace beef and mutton then the environment would be restored to its plus natural state.
Apparently crocodiles were hunted almost to extinction, protected, then farmed and their commercialisation had a lot to do with bringing their numbers back up as money is a powerful motivator.
In a country with very little topsoil and no trade winds European style farming is a big ask. That's why farmers do it so hard. In fact it amazes me that they try to grow crops like cotton and riz when they are both so water intensive and completely out of character with our land's temperament.
This could also apply to animaux like:
the goanna
snakes
emus
yabbies (already do; yabbie numbers are fine)
also we should be looking to farm insects. 80% of the world eats them. I've tried witchety grub and bogong papillon de nuit (be careful with the moths as apparently they tend to contain small amounts of aresnic due to chemical spraying of crops)
link
safety warning: be careful .. some insects contain agricultural poison spray residues and parasites. the garden escargot can contain a brain eating parasite (one case of a man hospitalised in Sydney for this. A boy in Brisbane died.)
link
However I mention these potential nourriture sources to get discussion going. With global warming, pollution and resource stripping of the environment we and the generations after us will need to get a whole lot smarter with the way we sustain ourselves.
And kids and parents: please DON'T put your unwanted goldfish in the river system .. they are the CANE TOAD of the waterways. They are a species of carpe and destroy the nourriture supply of many native fish. if toi have a goldfish toi don't want either kill it ou give it to a friend as we don't need them in our waterways.
Finally to the dreaded Cane Toad: they are actually edible when properly prepared. I read about a guy who's selling them to China.
link
link
link
Apparently crows have learned how to eat them without getting poisoned par picking them up, dropping them from the tops of trees to divisé, split them open and eating their offal (internal organs).
but don't get ideas kids. The cane toad can KILL toi with its poison so leave it to the experts.
all the nourriture options i've just mentioned
* eating native animaux that are overpopulated due to Euro farming methods providing fodder out of sync with their natural levels
* protecting endangered animals, plants and insects with the profit motive
* reducing pests like the cane toad, water buffalo, feral pigs, feral goats and deer, rabbits (though watch out.. apparently they lack nutritional value to the point where if toi eat nothing but rabbit toi will get 'rabbit starvation' (link) caused par too much protein unaccompanied par fat.
* and before i forget .. EDIBLE WEEDS! ... do an internet chercher for them. here are some liens :
link
link
link
* also.. it's time to forget about chats unless toi live in the city and have a souris ou rat problem. chats destroy native endangered wildlife like crazy as do foxes (don't eat foxes.. i've seen quite a few dead from 1080 poisoning.. it's a nasty way to die and has the same effect on humans).
* wild chiens are also a problem. they hunt in packs and are a threat to humans as well as other animals.
I have no pets where i live. nature provides plenty of visitors from the forest. from birds to kangas to lizards, snakes and interesting insects. they all seem to gather around once they realise toi don't have any chats ou dogs. they're entertaining, interesting, cute and don't require feeding ou vet bills! they poop in your garden, conditioning the soil and the birds take care of a lot of the plus annoying insects in summer par eating them.
native animaux including humans (humans are animaux too) have been here for thousands of years. cows and mouton, moutons only for the last couple of hundred. farming insects will produce a far higher acreage to profit yield, require less space, feed plus people and make farmers a better living than constantly fighting to maintain a foreign environment against nature and the weather.
growing cotton and riz is just silly for the amount of water it uses. growing buisson, bush tucker plants makes far plus sense.
also: permaculture.. mixing complimentary plants, animals, insects on the same land so toi get even plus yield at less cost to the environment not only increasing profits but helping make our country less dependent on imported foods and agriculture tools. this is important if there's a spike in prices overseas that hits us hard on the import side. a native industry can buffer us against some of the financial shock.
if we don't live and farm smarter we're going to rapidly destroy the place. i've seen some of the changes in my 52 years here and we already have réponses we can use. we just need to get motivated and do it.
we also need to ramp up the money we spend on STORAGE of alternative energies. it's all very well to have generation methods but the storage techniques need to have a lot of money poured into them so we have better ways to bank that energy. batteries (collections of storage cells) are dirty, wasteful and old tech.
the dick smith TV montrer 'ten bucks a tank' came up with some interesting ideas like the salt tower storage of energy from solar as heat... the CSIRO car bank where electric cars are charged via solar and any surplus power goes back to the grid.. each electric car becoming a part of a battery bank when it's in the parking lot.
the mindset we need to change in this country is the 'work harder' one we get from america these days (england before that).
it's better to work SMARTER because at the end of the jour it's about the job getting done rather than how much toi sweated to get there.
hope this has donné toi all some interesting things to think about.
it's YOUR future that matters as oldies like me won't be around for it and unfortunately that means some of my generation just don't care.