A Horse Of A Different Color
Food Columnist Bob Leo tackles the controversial topic of horse meat as a food source.
I'm sure by now most of you have heard about the big horse meat scandal sweeping " the continent". It makes you wonder how long this has been going on and just what's in the Whopper you ate last week.
And just why aren't horses eaten anyway?
Our illustrious President Obama recently lifted a ban on FDA inspections of horse meat. This would now make butchering horses legal in the good ol' U.S. of A.
In fact in many Asian and European countries horse is widely accepted as a food source. The top 8 horse meat producing countries butchered 4.7 million pounds last year. I'm not talking third world nations here, although certainly developing nations like Mexico, Mongolia and Kazakhastan make the list, so do Brazil, Canada, Poland, Italy, France and Spain.
I personally, have tasted lots of weird stuff but not horse (at least not to my knowledge). I am told, however, that it is slightly sweet, like a cross between beef and venison. The meat is lean and nutritious. It has a shorter cooking time than beef or pork and is very tender. Early in the Paleolithic age horse was a staple for hunters and gatherers. It prevented famine during the French Revolution. Napoleon used wounded war horses to feed his army. So why not now?
Generally horse is not available in English speaking countries because horses are catorgorized in the pet department. They plow our fields and take us on rides and seem to bond with humans. Ranchers don't produce horse because the are leaner and have higher metabolisms than most livestock . This translates to more feed per pound.
In fact way back in 732AD Pope Gregory III banned butchering of horses to prevent Germanic pagans from their ritual sacrifices to Odin. So this 'beef' has been going on for some time.
Personally, I say horsefeathers, if it tastes good and is nutritious, then common horse sense says eat it. Tell the poor starving kid in Ethiopia to have a steak. I'm sure he won't mind.
webmom
1:47 pm on Saturday, February 23, 2013
It's all emotional..horses are so graceful and beautiful and have been so helpful to humans all these years, so on a personal level I would choose not to eat them (just as I choose not to eat veal). But that said, yes, I agree technically that it should be legal...but let's make sure it's clearly labeled so people know exactly what they are eating. Most of the time, consumers get angry when they are not told what something is, what hormones have been injected, what something is preserved with (red slime, ammonia, etc.). Those are the huge issues in my opinion.
Ellen Sawyer
11:00 am on Sunday, February 24, 2013
The slaughter of horses is horrible and inhumane. The torture these beautiful animals endure is horrific. Try watching a video of these slaughter houses. If this does not disturb you on a personal level then there is something wrong with you. These horses are packed into trucks for long drives with no food or water. Stallions are put in these trucks with mares and sometimes even foals. The horses are packed in so tight that when one goes down it is trampled by the other horses. The fear and pain these horses go through is intolerable. Not to mention that the different drugs these animals have in their systems are not good for us to be ingesting. I am ashamed that the United States lets this happen to our horses.
Darienne Anderson
11:18 am on Sunday, February 24, 2013
Who can take a newspaper seriously that refers to the President as "illustrious"? Freedom of Disrespect. Quite frankly anyone who eats ANY animal is primitive. The order of your victims isn't the point. You are whining for more protection for YOUR food source? The starving kid in Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia would live longer and not be starving at all with a well constructed plant based diet. The horses could help manage the farm it grew on. They'd all live longer so they would have more time to read intelligent articles.
DBC
1:26 pm on Sunday, February 24, 2013
Excellent comments, Darienne and Ellen. Anyone who thinks the meat they are ingesting is being appropriately labeled and truthfully divulged as to actual content is sadly naive and MIS-informed. We live in a frantically corporate greed-consumed nation with very little honest intent or integrity at heart.. There are those who are trying to get our attention like a "voice crying in the wilderness," but they are treated as "fringe" people, not quite with all their "faculties," even by those who do have a conscience against the despicable treatment of meat-for-slaughter animals to provide a food source. Why? We don't like our convenient, pocketed world to be torn asunder and have to face the truth. Yet animals and other living things are tortured every day - for our benefit. Just look the other way and you can pretend it isn't happening. For a tasteful, poignant, compassionate and honest portrayal of what is really going on in our food industry, please see: www.tribeofheart.org/toh2/about.htm to begin your own journey toward the truth.