Monday 1 February 2010

TREE TOP TEGELS


We watched Close Up tonight with some interest. Roger Beattie has embarked on a campaign to change the way we think about endangered species. He wants commercial interests to be able to farm them. We have long thought that this was a great idea. Kangaroo and Crocs are farmed and harvested in Aussie and while to outsiders it might seem funny to eat a national emblem it ensures that the species is in good heart.

It was hilarious to see Beattie go head to heads with DOC's Al Morrison. It was very clear that Morrison is not that open to new ideas and was uncomfortable when Beattie proffered the notion that DOC has a vested interest in ensuring species stay rare.

Anyway the results of the Close Up poll - Do you think endangered species should be farmed?

Obviously the result caught Mark Sainsbury by surprise. 85% of respondents are all for farming endangered species. Its time that the government took a look at the opportunities that Beattie is offering and the tasty weka is definitely the species to start with.

Based on our historical family information- the tastiness of our " endangered species " goes like this :

Kiwi - yuck. - stringy and oddly unpleasant.
Weka - yum.
Kereru - very yum
Kaka - the very essence of an avian culinary orgasm.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I quite like Al Morrison but oh boy was he squirming! not sure why he was defensive as was Cumberpatch before him. Good idea, roast weka sounds good to me

Andrew D said...

Are you sure that kangaroos and crocodiles are farmed in Oz?

I understood that the widely available kangaroo meat in Aussie supermarkets is all culled wild animals, and Wikipedia agrees with me for what that's worth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat

By the way the odd butcher will warn you off kangaroo for exactly this reason. Think of the parasites!

Anonymous said...

I have long since queried why we can't farm trout in NZ? The other prospect would be to partition off a Sound in Fiordland and farm whales. The Japanese would happily purchase the meat and NZ interests could clip the ticket on the way through.

Cadwallader.

JC said...

No thanks.

I'll stick with our native beef, hoggett and chook.

JC

jv said...

Al is very unwise -- never ever dismiss a Roger Beattie good idea. In Jo'burg/Pretoria there is/was a restaurant that sells the harvest from big game population management in South African national parks.
And yes to being able to harvest a few flappers from the Ruamahunga riverbed