Really interesting reading Paddy, Bernie Masters, Perseus and Kaz. I feel that I know all of them quite well. I would stick my 2c in but I find the idea of making a buck out of kangaroos or any other 'crop' or windfall highlights the inherent absurdity of our economic system.

The biggest problem about farming or hunting anything in Australia is that we are attempting to satisfy our own ridiculously outsized local population plus something like 300 million overseas consumers by intensively cultivating and harvesting anything the earth produces.

Does anyone on this forum seriously think that we can go on doing this? Every natural resource and the interdependency of our bio-ecology is compromised by this imperative to make a profit from every activity we engage in.

The earth is like the goose that laid the golden egg. The hunters and farmers who go after the goose and its eggs are in the difficult position of being coerced and induced by the crazy free market to the point where they are eventually going to club that goose to death, just to be able to pay for that next tank of petrol for the new harvester.

I've just come across an article by one of the world's experts on Kangaroos - Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe - published in the July 2005 edition of Australasian Science. While he doesn't come out and say that kangaroo harvesting is economically sustainable, he is very strong in his comments against over-grazing by sheep in pastoral regions.

Entitled "Kangaroos and Sheep: The Unequal Contest", the article should be read by anyone who has a genuine interest in this issue of kangaroo farming and sustainablity.

If anyone wants to email me at bmasters@iinet.net.au, I'll send them a scanned copy of the article.

I would like to agree with the person who talks about turning our kangaroos into a tourism event instead of a meal.

If they must eat or farm something go along the lines of a delicacy try rats and they breed much quicker than kangaroos.

Every time this country goes in for farming animals such and the deer, the emu etc it always seems to have back fired on the animals as well as the people involved. You can fit much more rats on your property than kangaroos and international visitors wont think what barbaric people live in this country.

We should be appreciating our wildlife not cooking it.