VFF Livestock president Ailsa Fox laughed when asked what cookbook she could recommend for kangaroo meat, saying "we can’t keep them out, let alone keep them in".

She was reacting to comments by Professor Ross Garnaut and Australian of the Year Tim Flannery that kangaroo should be farmed for meat instead of cattle because they emit less methane.

But things turned more serious when the implications of emissions trading on farmers was considered.

"It's still based on flawed science and they're still doing research to determine the extent of the problem," Mrs Fox said.

"They will put most farmers in Australia out of business."

She said farmers could not understand why Australia was being forced to lead the world in decimating its industries.

"Hopefully, the Treasury report on the economics of emissions trading will provide us with what we are looking for."

She said Australian farmers were competing on world markets and already struggling with red tape. Estimates that the government's "carbon pollution tax" would add 96 cents a kilogram to the cost of production of beef and 67c/kg to lambs would cripple the industry.

"We rely on world markets, with 70pc of what we produce exported," she said.

"The population is growing expidentially and the area of land available to grow feed is under teriffic stress.

"What Garnaut said yesterday flies in the face of common sense."