Australia’s Other Red Meat
Over the last 30 years since it was declared legal for human consumption, Australians have become more or less comfortable eating its indigenous national symbol, the Kangaroo. Aborigines have hunted the Kangaroo since the beginning of life on the continent, and its meat, which is high in protein lower in fat than beef is sold in supermarkets as steaks and other fine cuts and also exported for sausage and dog food.
Now the Australian government and certain entrepreneurial butchers are asking the country to consider the meat of another wild (albeit once servile) beast, the camel. Unlike the native Kangaroo, which does not harm the root systems of native grass, the camel, brought over in the 19th century to transport goods, is wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem. According to The Atlantic Online, the Australian government is currently planning to “cull” (round up and slaughter) 349,000 camels because, without any natural predator, their population is doubling every 10 years. Garry Dann, the owner of an isolated meat store who also runs the slaughterhouse Centralian Gold, told The Atlantic, “It’s a good meat, low in cholesterol. I would hate to see it go to the worms.” Weighing in at 700-900 pounds, it would certainly feed a lot of worms. And that hump! So proudly has it supported the likes of Aladdin and Lawrence of Arabia, it is also considered a delicacy in some camel-consuming countries.
But Australians, like most Westerners, are not as eager to adopt wild meat as one would hope. The CEO of Safefood Queensland told The Atlantic that even Kangaroo meat, while considered acceptable by most is not wildly popular: “It should really be put on a show like MasterChef, to encourage people to cook with it,” she says.
While The Food Network could be part of a solution, there remains the problem of its name. Lacking a euphemism like “ham” for pigs or “beef” for cattle, which both distract the consumer from thinking of the animal from which their meal was “culled,” the word Kangaroo brings to mind fun, cuddly creatures like Skippy from the popular 1960s television series. To address this issue, the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia (KIAA) launched a competition in 2005 to give the marsupial an appetite-inducing pseudonym. The winner? “Australus.” No, it did not catch on.
One thing that the camel may have going for it though is that it is ugly. And dumb. Which, at least by American standards, are both things that would seem to make it more palatable than the cute and cartoonish Kangaroo.
By the way, the KIAA has some great-looking recipes for Skippy.
