5 – Jake C.

Hi I’m Jake and I am a Senior majoring in Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Education. I was born in Wailuku, Hawaii and have lived in Michigan for 19 years. My favorite hobbies include cooking, cycling, tabletop gaming, canoeing, and painting. I am very excited about going to Australia where I hope to take my knowledge of agriculture and expand upon it with sustainable ideologies. I also love wildlife and I’m excited to go to the national park.

In terms of what I want to research, I want to research the possible benefits from increasing the production of indigenous fauna, in particular kangaroo and emu, for meat production in terms of feed to carcass ratios and greenhouse gas output compared to bovines or swine. I have found three articles of interest that could make for an interesting project. The first article is on the promotion of kangaroo farming for meat in the range lands of Australia. The second one looks at the decrease of beef consumption and the rise of white meat consumption in the country, such as pork and or chicken. The third article that I found of interest and would work along with this project is an article about feed conversion ratios and the commercial viability of emu farming which would be interesting to look at with the rise of white meat consumption in the country.

• Ratnasiri, S., & Bandara, J. (2017). Changing patterns of meat consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in australia: Will kangaroo meat make a difference? PloS One, 12(2), e0170130. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170130
• DANIEL, D. R., THOMPSON, L. D., & HOOVER, L. C. (2000). Nutrition composition of emu compares favorably with that of other lean meats. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 100(7), 836-838. doi:10.1016/S0002-8223(00)00242-X
• Baghurst, K. (1999). Red meat consumption in Australia: intakes, contributions to nutrient intake and associated dietary patterns. European journal of cancer prevention: the official journal of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation (ECP), 8(3), 185-191.