The primary reason horse meat is taboo is because horses are considered valuable pets and culturally respected animals. Besides, people fear horse meat might be infected with harmful drugs. Some Christian schools of thought also discourage eating horses.
Why do we eat cows but not horses?
Cows are just more efficient sources of food than horses. Brian Palmer of Slate explains that in terms of caloric content, 3 ounces of cows give you more bang per pound: A three-ounce serving of roast horse has 149 calories, 24 grams of protein, and five grams of fat.
Do people eat horse?
In many other nations, however, eating horse meat is no big deal – and in some cultures, it’s even considered a delicacy. Mexico, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Poland and China are among the nations where many people eat horse meat without a second thought.
Is horse meat good to eat?
Eating Horse Meat Is Good for You That’s right. Horse meat is not only high in protein, but a good cut has about half the fat, less cholesterol and twice as much iron and Vitamin B as beef.
What does horse taste like?
Nutrition. Horse meat has a slightly sweet taste reminiscent of beef. Many consumers allege not being able to tell the difference between beef and horse meat. Meat from younger horses tends to be lighter in color, while older horses produce richer color and flavor, as with most mammals.
Can pigs eat dogs?
As you know, pigs can eat almost anything in the case of dog or cat food, they can definitely eat it, but you should only do it in exceptional conditions.
Is eating horse legal in the US?
It’s taboo to eat horse in America. The three U.S. slaughterhouses that dealt in horse closed in 2007, according to the New Food Economy. Horses in the United States can be sold and shipped to other countries, where it is legal to slaughter them for food.
Why is eating horse illegal?
U.S. horse meat is unfit for human consumption because of the uncontrolled administration of hundreds of dangerous drugs and other substances to horses before slaughter. These drugs are often labeled “Not for use in animals used for food/that will be eaten by humans.”
Does Taco Bell use horse meat?
Taco Bell has officially joined Club Horse Meat. The fast-food chain and subsidiary of Yum Brands says it has found horse meat in some of the ground beef it sells in the United Kingdom. Sure, the mastermind behind the Double-Decker Taco Supreme is a fast-food mainstay in the US.
Why do they slaughter horses?
Horse slaughter is the practice of slaughtering horses to produce meat for consumption. Equine domestication is believed to have begun to raise horses for human consumption.
Is it illegal to slaughter horses?
The slaughtering of any animal for human consumption in the US is a federally regulated process. This is the same for beef, hogs or other livestock (Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. For example, Texas, California and Illinois have banned horse slaughter within their states but those laws have no impact elsewhere.
What does dog taste like?
What Does Dog Taste Like? It’s a red meat, quite fatty, and extremely fragrant. Take a cross between beef and mutton, add extra meaty flavoring, and you’ve got the taste of dog. … It was so tasty and delicious that if it wasn’t for the “psychological thought of eating dog”, everyone would probably love it.
Can you eat lion meat?
It’s legal both to kill and eat lion in the United States, though it’s not legal to hunt them and then sell the meat. Practically speaking, it’s not easy to get, given that most lion is acquired from game preserve stock or retired circus animals or exotic animal businesses.
What is horse meat called?
Horse meat, or chevaline, as its supporters have rebranded it, looks like beef, but darker, with coarser grain and yellow fat. It seems healthy enough, boasting almost as much omega-3 fatty acids as farmed salmon and twice as much iron as steak.
What is rabbit meat called?
Rabbit is what the meat is called. Hare meat is called hare meat, and is gamier, but delicious in stews. To bug my daughter, I call rabbit meat “bunny”. Like most wild game, rabbit takes on the flavor of what it eats.
Does rabbit taste good?
The general consensus is that rabbit tastes similar to chicken. The texture is different too, rabbit being more on the dry side. Some types of rabbit with great taste include Californian rabbit, silver fox, and Cinnamon rabbit.
Why Don’t Americans Eat Horse?
When Top Chef Canada premiered six years ago, one of the episodes featured a scene that would never, ever be repeated on its American equivalent under any circumstances. For the most part, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the episode: Each contender had to prepare a dish using a different protein popular in French cuisine for the elimination task, which featured a French theme thanks to the appearance of New York-based chef Daniel Boulud as a guest judge on the show. The proteins were chosen at random by the candidates, who included sweetbreads, frogs’ legs, and horse.
Although it was just 45 seconds, the incident sparked widespread indignation.
Food Network, which produces the Canadian edition of Top Chef, justified the use of horses as part of “a genuinely authentic, traditional French dish,” according to a statement from the network.
While eating horse may not be to the liking of those protesters, it is a prevalent practice in Europe and Asia, and has a long history of tradition.
A horse sausage known as kazy is particularly popular in Central Asia.
Because the horse’s hooves are not kosher, it has never been served to Jews, and while Muslims can consume it, they have occasionally been discouraged from doing so.
As for the flavor, it’s as follows: With a hint of minerality and sweetness, it’s a red meat that’s commonly believed to be in the same family as both beef and venison.
According to McMillan, “I appreciate the richness of taste, and I genuinely think of it as a healthy alternative.” “If someone comes to me looking for a wonderful steak, I’m not going to guide them down the horse road.” A huge green salad and a horse tenderloin may be my recommendation if I see a guy who’s really toned or someone who appears to be pretty serious about the gym – no cream, no butter, no nothing.
- “It’s a fairly healthy dinner.” Top Chef has made quite a commotion.
- However, there is another important reason why such an episode would never be broadcast: Horse meat is just not accessible in the United States.
- Although the USDA was denied funds to examine horse meat in 2007, the Appropriations Committee was successful in banning the practice in 2007.
- According to a spokeswoman for the USDA, “If there is no mark of inspection, then horse meat is not authorized to travel in our national commerce.” As a result, America’s three horse slaughterhouses, which were closed more than a decade ago, were no longer in operation.
- However, the USDA is not yet free to resume its examination of horse corpses.
- Horse meat will not be appearing on American restaurants anytime soon, to put it bluntly.
- However, even if horse patties were widely accessible, it is doubtful that they would appear on grocery shelves in large quantities.
- It is also available on the menus of a lot of eateries.
- Although Toronto is home to a horse meat butcher, horse meat restaurants are few and far between in the city.
Animal welfare organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) have expressed concern about the killing process: Nancy Perry, senior vice president of government relations at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, expresses concern that slaughterhouses are designed with cows rather than horses in mind.
“Cattle are flighty, but they’ve been tamed for the most part over time, and the equipment and setup are really designed to accommodate cattle.” Many horse enthusiasts are more interested with what’s going on beneath the animals’ skin: Former racing horses are frequently sold into the meat supply stream, according to Dr.
- It would be necessary to cross the border into Canada or Mexico in order for American racehorses to do so.
- In Dodman’s words, “they’re virtually walking pharmacies; the racing industry is absolutely crooked and self-policing.” If you are caught, it’s a little like Wall Street: a slap on the wrist is the most you’ll get.
- No matter how you look at it, not all horse slaughterhouses are created equal.
- The wine must be natural, if not entirely organic.
- Whenever you ask the ordinary American why they don’t eat horse, you’ll find that they don’t know too much about bute or the slaughtering process.
In addition, Perry points out that Americans have a long history with horses that Europeans do not: “They played a significant role in the founding of the United States.” “Without the horse, we would not have been able to establish this country, and they undoubtedly had a role in every major conflict in which we have been involved up until recently,” says the author.
When it comes to serving horses, “I think it’s culturally appropriate in this province, which is one of the only French-speaking areas in North America, if there was one damn pace to serve horse without repercussions,” he says.
Joe Beef would remain in Montreal, even if I created a Joe Beef restaurant there.
In the words of Sinikka Crosland, executive director of the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition and horse owner, they are “a buddy for the horse.” “I just felt a strong connection to horses,” she adds.
The more I got to know them, the more I discovered how sensitive and clever they are, and how you can form a link with them in the same way that you do with other animals who are kept as pets.” However, it is possible that the vision of the American frontiersman and his beloved horse is not so durable that it prevents Americans from diving into horse tartare even two centuries after it was first served.
A recent study by Stanford economics professor Alvin Roth found that the prestigious Harvard Faculty Club used to indulge in this delicacy even during World War II.
In his words, “repugnance has everything to do with not just what I want to eat, but also with what I believe you should not be permitted to consume.” “There are no laws prohibiting people from eating worms because there is no need for a law prohibiting something that no one wants to do.” He goes on to say that legislation, such as the state of California’s 1998 prohibition on horse meat, have served to indicate the animal’s cultural significance.
The cultural argument is one that James Serpell, a researcher who specializes in human-animal relationships, is well acquainted with.
In Asia right now, he adds, “there are some intriguing things happening with a lot of local resistance to the concept of eating dogs and eating cats.
“And it’s because of the increase in pet ownership in these countries, as well as the experience of having those animals as family members, that they are becoming less interested in eating them.” Serpell believes that if you take away the emotion from the situation, there isn’t a really rational reason for his unwillingness to consume horse.
- The question has been on Melanie Joy’s mind for a long time.
- “We’re taught to classify a small number of creatures as edible, and we’re educated to essentially detach from our own ideas and emotions.
- The majority of people would have a difficult time believing that it was manufactured from a Golden Retriever or kittens if they learned that it was made from them.
- With horse meat virtually extinct in the United States, persuading people to bring it back is a difficult sell, and discussions over its reintroduction are extremely passionate for what is just an appropriations item.
- However, it takes the right cultural moment, as well as perhaps a dash of catastrophic scarcity, to bring about such a change.
Eater Montreal is edited by Tim Forster, who also serves as its publisher. As an artist located in Portland, Oregon, Subin Yang is interested in the themes of home, culture (which means plenty of food), and identity, which she explores in her work. Daniela Galarza is the editor of this publication.
6 Legit Reasons We Don’t Eat Horse Meat
Six years ago, an episode of Canada’s Top Chef featured a moment that would never, under any circumstances, be repeated on its American counterpart. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the majority of the episode: Each contestant had to prepare a dish using a different protein common in French cuisine for the elimination challenge, which had a French theme thanks to the presence of New York-based chef Daniel Boulud as a guest judge on the show. The proteins were chosen by the contestants at random: sweetbreads, frogs’ legs, and horse.
- Food Network, which produces the Canadian version of Top Chef, defended the use of horse as part of “a truly authentic, traditional French menu,” according to a statement from the network.
- While eating horse may not be to the liking of those protesters, it is quite common in Europe and Asia, and has a long history.
- A horse sausage known as kazy is particularly popular in Central Asia.
- Because the horse’s hooves are not kosher, it has never been served to Jews, and while Muslims can eat it, they have been discouraged from doing so in some instances.
- What it tastes like is as follows: With a hint of minerality and sweetness, it’s a red meat that’s often considered to be on the same level as beef or venison.
- According to McMillan, “I like the depth of flavor, and I really think it’s a healthy choice.” When someone asks for a delicious steak, I’m not going to steer them down a rabbit hole.
- Generally speaking, it’s a healthy dinner.” Due to the Top Chef controversy, there has been some confusion.
The fact that such an episode would never air is due to another important factor.
Despite the fact that horse slaughter is not officially prohibited in the United States, proposals for an absolute ban on horse slaughter have risen and failed to get through Congress on many occasions since 2006.
Without funding for inspections, there is no guarantee of safety, and consequently no horse meat may be marketed in the United States.
These facilities, which had been shuttered for more than a decade, were the last of their kind in the United States.
Earlier this year, the horse controversy was reignited: The USDA’s annual appropriations bill, which was enacted in July, did not include a limit on the financing of horse meat inspection.
That law must be passed by the House before the prohibition can be reinstated.
In light of the foregoing legal circumstances, the solution to the question “Why don’t Americans eat horse?” appears to be quite simple.
This is supported by the Canadian situation: Horse eating is tolerated to some extent in the French-speaking province of Quebec, which has strong cultural and linguistic links to France.
It is also available on the menus of a lot of establishments.
Even though Toronto has a horse meat butcher, there aren’t many horse meat restaurants to be found in the city.
The killing procedure is a source of contention for animal rights organizations such as the ASPCA: She is worried that slaughterhouses are designed with cows in mind rather than horses, according to Nancy Perry, senior vice president of government relations at the American SPCA.
” The cattle may be flighty, but they have been tamed through time, and the equipment and setup are specifically designed to accommodate them.
Retired racing horses are frequently sold into the meat supply stream, according to Dr.
It would be necessary to cross the border into Canada or Mexico in order for American racehorses to achieve this.
In Dodman’s opinion, “they’re virtually walking pharmacies; the racing industry is utterly crooked and self-policing.” If you are caught, it’s a little like Wall Street: a slap on the wrist is all you get.
No matter how you look at it, not all horse slaughterhouses are equal.
According to McMillan’s supplier, who was about to exit the horse meat industry at the time of the interview, it would be better for him not to serve horse meat completely rather than transition to a source with whom he had no prior experience.
The simple fact is that horse has been off the table in the United States due to cultural conventions.
When it comes to serving horses, “I think it’s culturally acceptable in this province, which is one of the last French-speaking areas in North America, if there was one darn pace to serve horse without penalties,” he believes.
Those who come into intimate contact with the animals have a stronger sense of cultural affinity.
In her own words, “I just felt a connection with horses.” The notion occurred to me that because I enjoy dogs and cats, why not horses?
The famous Harvard Faculty Club, according to Stanford economics professor Alvin Roth, was consuming it as late as World War II, according to Roth.
In his words, “repugnance has everything to do with not only what I want to eat, but also with what I believe you shouldn’t be permitted to.” “There are no laws prohibiting people from consuming worms because there is no reason for a law prohibiting something that no one wants to do,” explains the author.
- Mr.
- In his research, the University of Pennsylvania’s professor of animal ethics and welfare draws a comparison between the American aversion to horses and the consumption of domestic animals like dogs in some regions of Asia.
- there’s definitely a cultural change taking place.” As a result of the increase in pet ownership in these nations and the experience of having such pets as part of the family, people are becoming less inclined to consume these creatures.
- In Serpell’s opinion, “eating elderly horses would actually make a lot of sense.” This appears to be an enormous waste of protein.
- The question has been on Melanie Joy’s mind for a long time.
- “We’re taught to classify a small number of creatures as edible, and we’re indoctrinated to essentially detach from our own ideas and sentiments.
- ” The majority of people would have a difficult time accepting it as food if they discovered it was prepared from a Golden Retriever or kittens.
- Approximately 80% of those who respond to polls on whether horse meat should be prohibited from eating it say they are opposed to it.
- People have been prepared to put a fork in their horses throughout history, despite the romanticism that surrounds cowboys and their horses.
- It appears that horse flesh will continue to be frowned upon in America for the foreseeable future.
Eater Montreal is edited by Tim Forster, who also serves as its managing editor. The themes of home, culture (which includes plenty of food), and identity are explored by Subin Yang in her illustrations, which are now located in Portland, Oregon. Andrea Galarza is the editor.
- Horse flesh is classified as an industrial by-product, similar to wet baled-up cardboard boxes or steel slag, and as such, it is not recommended for consumption. Horse racing is a contentious practice for a variety of reasons, but one of the most significant is the unregulated infusion of racing animals with horse-sized doses of drugs, including uppers, downers, steriods, antiparasitics, antibiotics, muscle relaxants, and sleeping medications, among other things. You’re familiar with the regulation against mercury in fish, right? The concentration of mercury in the fish increases with the size of the fish. In particular, because the fish aren’t aware that they’re consuming chemicals
- The racing horses who end up as food aren’t grown for food
- They’re raised for competition. At the risk of sounding repetitive, the individuals who care for racehorses never imagine that the gorgeous beast dozing off from barbituates would wind up on a plate
- “Bute,” or phenylbutazone, is a medication used to treat barbituates. Every racing horse on the track today receives this anti-inflammatory and pain medicine, which is recommended by veterinarians and owners alike. The use of bute on horses that might end up as food is prohibited due to its carcinogenic effects, and the substance is no longer approved for human consumption. However, since., there is no longer a need for this regulation. .but we now outsource to Canada and Mexico because the final American horse slaughtering facility closed its doors five years ago.
- There has been no sign of any sort of revivalist movement for just long enough to strongly imply that horse meat is not something we should be consuming right now.
The fact that I’ve never tasted horse meat in the United States (apart from the small amount in that bologna) does not diminish my desire to neigh, whinny, revel in the awkward quiet and ugly glances, and dive into some equestri-yums. Eating something new and different is seldom a terrible thing, and it appears that horse is no longer included in that category as time goes on. On Food Republic, there are even more contentious dishes:
- Is it OK to consume seal meat? Why are carbohydrate-loading Olympians giving up gluten? In Los Angeles, there’s a swanky farewell to foie gras.
There’s No Good Reason Why America Doesn’t Eat Horses
It has come as a shock to beef consumers in the United Kingdom and Europe to realize that part of the beef in their cuisine is actually horse meat. Yes, it has been discovered that the beef in a variety of inexpensive, supermarket-sold lasagnas, burgers, and pastas contains traces of horse meat, and in other cases, the beef is entirely composed of horse flesh. Of course, many countries in Europe will cheerfully consume horse meat and will have no concern about the inadvertent cross-contamination.
- Although there is no evidence that the horse meat scandal has reached American shores, it does raise the question of why Americans don’t consume horse meat.
- According to a letter delivered to his friend Boniface in the year 395, Pope Gregory III declared that the ritual consumption of horse flesh was a heathen practice that needed to be prohibited.
- Wikimedia Commons has a collection of images.
- While the majority of Eurasia and Asia consumed horse flesh, the practice had been widespread throughout the Copper, Bronze, and Iron eras — most likely ever since horses were domesticated and people had the means to consume them According to Frederick J.
- Even the ancient Greeks and Romans were against eating horse flesh, as was the Islamic and Jewish societies, which followed Mosaic Law for thousands of years before the invention of the printing press.
- is so significant: it was more than just an effort to stigmatize and reform a pagan religion; it was also an official state effort to preserve horses for warfare rather than food.
- .As a result of the Wild Wes Horses became somewhat of a legendary beast in the collective mind of the United States.
There are even reports of European prisoners being exchanged in return for horses by some tribes, according to certain sources.
In June of 1943, a butcher was having a good time cutting horse flesh.
There was no doubt about it, these were not our meal.
Horse flesh was a frequent (and inexpensive) source of protein during times of food scarcity throughout the Civil War and even World War II, according to historical records.
In 1973, a similar food scarcity arose, prompting butcher shops to go for the horse meat once more.
It was the first time in American history that consuming horse flesh was legally questioned at the federal level.
However, Congress under President Barack Obama restored this decision the following year.
)PaolaZatta.co Will the United States of America eat it again?
It’s less expensive than beef, leaner, and even has a little of adelicacy in some parts of the world, according to the USDA.
When we approached Marion Nestle, an expert in public health at New York University and author of the prominent Food Politics blog, she expressed skepticism about the proposal.
“We don’t eat horses in our household.
Also, we don’t consume animals such as dogs or cats.
Don’t be concerned about the discrepancies or conflicts This is a matter of cultural significance.
We have a plethora of additional alternatives.
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Why you really should (but really can’t) eat horsemeat
Following the horsemeat crisis that engulfed Europe in 2013, a handful of high-end restaurants with a penchant for pushing the boundaries decided to experiment with introducing horsemeat to the modern American taste. In the end, it was a disaster. In response to his announcement that he would be serving horsemeat in his dining room, Philadelphia chef Peter McAndrews, proprietor of the luxury Italian restaurant Monsu, was sent horrific photographs of horses being murdered and even got bomb threats in the mail.
However, a visit by the Food and Drug Administration to all five of his eateries did the trick.
“I had the distinct impression that I was being watched by the FBI of the culinary business.” If you’re like the vast majority of people in the United States, the prospect of eating horsemeat at a restaurant would make you cringe, if not gag.
But Americans can’t seem to get their minds around the idea, despite the fact that many areas of arable public lands are currently overrun with approximately 50,000 feral horses – and that bringing them to the dinner table might be one of the best possible solutions to the overcrowding.
(Per the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon, the Bureau of Land Management is required to conserve the feral horse population in perpetuity.) Equine populations have thrived since the introduction of horses to North America in the 16th century, and the 1971 law was successful in reviving wild horse populations to the point where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now facing significant legal and local pressure to prevent them from running rampant across western rangeland, destroying habitat and sucking the land dry of water and forage.
An additional 50,000 wild horses are being held in holding facilities throughout 10 states – from Texas to Wyoming – in addition to the 50,000 wild horses now on the loose.
Horses were authorized to be killed under the original statute in circumstances of overpopulation and when adoptive owners could not be located.
According to Robert Garrott of Montana State University, who contributed in a two-year study by the National Research Council that questioned present wild horse management approaches, “people have a strong attachment to horses.” “They have the ability to be rational in their care of other companion animals such as dogs and cats.” Horses, on the other hand, seem to defy logic more than any other animal I can think of.”
Not your grandfather’s American mustang
Garrott believes that when the legislation was established in 1971, legislators and horse enthusiasts had a different vision in mind than what is now in place. “In the 1970s, scientists believed wild horse populations expanded at a pace of 1 percent to 3 percent each year,” says Garrot, who worked on studies in the 1980s that revealed wild horse populations grew at a rate around ten times faster than scientists had previously believed. Because the BLM is unable to kill the animals and because the number of people interested in adopting wild horses is too low to keep up with demand, the agency collects up thousands of horses every year and puts them wherever it can.
- In these short-term institutions, these animals are sometimes kept for years at a time because of the current scenario,” says the veterinarian.
- Faced with a population that is doubling every four years, Congress upped the budget for the wild horse and burro program to $80 million last year, an increase from $17 million in 1990.
- Photograph courtesy of Reuters’ Jim Urquhart The Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was forced to cancel two of its collaborations with wild horse conservation initiatives this past summer.
- According to Warr, the expense of transporting those horses amounted to “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” “The Bureau of Land Management is caught between a rock and a hard place,” Garrott adds.
In fact, Garrott points out that “not even other animals that people are enthusiastic about — wolves in the west – are protected in this way.” “Horses are the only species that I am aware of where society has not accepted the concept that if there is an excess of an animal and no one wants it, it should be put down.” The impact of wild horses on their environment has been likened to that of invasive pythons or feral pigs, both of which have been subjected to bounty hunts by state authorities in an attempt to maintain control.
Garrott, on the other hand, believes it is quite improbable that Americans would argue for a comparable treatment of horses.
Moreover, there is no tradition of eating them.” The US Humane Society has expressed strong opposition to the Bureau of Land Management’s management method, describing the helicopter-assisted roundups as “cruel and hazardous.” They support for more active measures to reduce the population through the use of contraception, which the BLM and National Research Council believe is insufficient given that the population is already 50% greater than what wildlife authorities deem to be appropriate.
The Humane Society is also a staunch opponent of any form of horse slaughter, regardless of the method used.
According to Stephanie Boyles Griffin, senior director of the Humane Society’s Wildlife Protection Program, “We regard them differently because they are an animal on which the West was created and because they are an iconic species.” “They exemplify the rugged independence that is emblematic of the American West.” “People want them to be free,” says the author.
In Carson City, Nevada, wild horses may be seen walking around a corral inside the Warm Springs Correctional Facility. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has had difficulty in recent years locating facilities that will accommodate the animals. Photograph courtesy of LISA J. TOLDA/Associated Press
Ah, horses – we ate them once
So, why not consume them? The same thing is done with other wild ungulates, such as deer, elk, and bison, to name a few examples. In addition, horsemeat is more nutritious than beef since it has less fat, more protein, and a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids than beef. Connoisseurs describe it as sweet with a delightful gamey undercurrent. Consumption of horses wasn’t always considered prohibited. It was a main food throughout the Paleolithic period. Horse chops temporarily returned to popularity at the time of World War II, owing partly to the inexpensive cost of the meat at the time.
- If horse owners believe they will be able to sell their animals for meat in the future, Princess Anne suggests that they will take better care of their animals.
- In 2013, the movement expanded its reach to the United States.
- However, horse conservationists and government officials reacted quickly and harshly to the news.
- Because there aren’t enough slaughterhouses in the United States, around 160,000 domestic American horses are sent to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico each year for sale in overseas markets.
- The European Council rejected horsemeat from Mexican slaughterhouses earlier this month, citing fears that medications used in American racehorses might contaminate the food supply chain in the process.
Wild horses, according to Dan Barber, author of The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food and co-owner of the farm-to-table restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York’s Westchester County and its sister restaurant Blue Hill in New York City, could find a place on the American menu in the not-too-distant future.
- For each animal – or crop, for that matter – we must consider the following questions: what is its worth in our environment and in our agriculture, and how can we optimize that value via culinary technique?
- Something like wild horsemeat, for example, is an excellent example (as long as you can ensure honest labeling and humane treatment).
- But what if you’re cooking on or near rangeland and you’re allergic to certain foods?
- The willingness to modify regulations around wild horse numbers – and maybe even their image in the public’s consciousness in the United States – would be required (as well as a market).
- He is concerned that wild horses in the United States will be permitted to roam free until they run up against the realities of scarce resources.
The situation, according to Garrott, is “absolutely and completely unsustainable.” “And if society chooses to do so, that is their prerogative. Horses and those who appreciate our western rangelands will suffer greatly as a result of this decision.”
- On the 4th of February, 2015, this article was updated. A accompanying shot of wild horses in Sabucedo, Spain, was originally included in the narrative as a result of a production error during production. It has been deleted from the system.
Why don’t we eat horses?
The controversy surrounding horse meat in Europe continues to spread: Nestle SA, based in Switzerland, stated this week that it will remove beef pasta dinners from shop shelves across Europe following the revelation that they included horse meat. When it was discovered that what seemed to be beef products included horse meat, most U.K. retailers were obliged to take them off the shelves. Now, regulators are attempting to determine how the horse meat found its way through a sophisticated supply chain and into numerous products.
However, the outpouring of rage following the revelation has prompted the question: Why is horse meat deemed forbidden in certain countries and commonplace in others?
A New York City resident, Victoria Milton, was asked to explain why she would not eat horse meat, and she compared them to pets, adding that “people have horses and they love them and they’re part of their family.” Horse flesh, on the other hand, is not regarded a delicacy in many other countries, and in other cultures, it is even considered a delicacy.
When it comes to eating horse, Americans used to be a lot more relaxed about it.
According to Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies at New York University, there was a de facto “black market” for horse meat in the 1940s and 1950s, in which people would go into pet food stores and buy horse meat for their own consumption, believing it to be a more affordable and tasty alternative to beef.
- “Sometimes the decisions we make are influenced by how desperate we are,” she explained.
- According to Nestle, slaughterhouses began opening pet food enterprises in the 1920s in order to dispose of horse meat.
- Today, according to Nestle, most pet food producers do not pretend to utilize horse meat, in part because they are concerned that it may deter customers from purchasing their products.
- In that year, more over 100,000 horses were slaughtered for food, the most of which was sent to Europe and Asia.
- (The restriction was lifted in 2011, but no funds have been set aside to conduct fresh inspections.) Horses are still being exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter and, in many cases, for human food, despite the protests of animal rights advocates in the United States.
- (Glue is a another thing entirely.) Horses are also not especially effective at turning grass and grain into meat, which reduces their appeal as a source of food for human consumption.
- It’s a concept that has been perpetuated in popular culture by television series such as “Mr.
- As Nestle explains, “We had this entire western thing where horses were a part of the whole western culture as well as the border.” “And then there’s the whole romantic cowboy thing.
- In continental Europe, it is frequently used to make sausages or to cook like a steak, for example.
- Professor James A.
- According to him, “we have this tendency for a type of morality that we apply in humans to seep out to other species,” and “the criterion by which it leaches out to appears to be pretty arbitrary.” Brian Montopoli is a well-known actor.
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The Troubled History of Horse Meat in America
Mr. Donald Trump intends to reduce funding for wild horse management, which is provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). An alternative to having to pay for their feeding is for him to suggest eliminating the rules that ban the sale of American mustangs to horse meat traffickers who supply slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. Horse meat, orchevaline, as its proponents have dubbed it, has a similar appearance to beef, but is darker, has finer grain, and has more yellow fat. It appears to be nutritionally sound, since it has nearly as much omega-3 fatty acids as farmed salmon and twice as much iron as steak.
- Its supply and demand are unpredictable, and it has limited regulatory oversight.
- Horse enthusiasts are also ardent and formidable opponents of the horse breeding business.
- Horse meat has a long history of producing difficulties for politicians in the United States.
- They went for Eurasia during the Pleistocene ice age, only to return thousands of years later with the conquistadors, a sign of the changing environment.
- Horse is forbidden in the Book of Leviticus, and in 732 Pope Gregory III issued an edict ordering his citizens to abstain from eating horse since it was a “impure and repulsive” heathen delicacy.
- By the 16th century, hippophagy (the habit of eating horse meat) had been elevated to the level of a criminal felony in the country.
- The taboo was gradually lifted.
Britain was the only country to reject hippophagy, probably because it could obtain sufficient red meat from its empire.
The Pilgrims had carried with them, among other things, the European taboo against eating horse meat, which had been passed down from pre-Christian tradition.
The Civil War itself led beef prices to plummet, owing to a wartime surplus and improved access to cattle pastures in the Western United States.
The periodic increases in the price of beef were never enough to convince the American public to eat horse.
In the nineteenth century, newspapers were awash with gruesome stories of the spread of hippophagy in Europe and the Middle East.
In Russia, nihilists share horse corpses; in besieged Paris, pitiful Frenchmen nibble on taxi horses; and in Berlin, starving Berliners slurp horse soup.
It was during this time that the horse as a mode of transportation was being phased out, thanks to the invention of the electric street vehicle and the battery-powered automobile.
Europe, on the other hand, had stricter standards and did not appreciate the introduction of American beef into its own market.
As a result of the visit by the French and German consuls to a Chicago slaughterhouse that was suspected of shipping ill horses to Europe, opponents attempted to discredit the United States Agriculture Secretary, who had interfered earlier.
horse meat, Chicagoans were rumored to be eating chevaline unintentionally, and the price of horses had fallen so precipitously that their flesh had been fed to chickens because it was cheaper than corn.
Many people were under the impression that the tainted beef was actually horse meat.
The new laws put in place as a result of the 1906Pure Food Actwould not be able to undo this in a single day.
By 1919, Congress had been convinced to enable the Department of Agriculture to give official inspections and stamps for American horse meat.
Because of the conclusion of the war, demand for range-bred horses, which were no longer required on the Western Front, decreased once more.
Because of his success, a coal miner called Frank Litts attempted to explode his Rockford, Illinois packing facility twice, which may have been the world’s first direct action in the name of animal freedom.
The term “horse flesh” has become a political slur.
In 1951, reporters inquired as to whether or not there would be a “Horse Meat Congress,” which would “place the old gray mare on the family dinner table,” as the phrase went.
Despite the fact that labor horses had all but disappeared by the 1970s and mustangs had finally been placed under federal protection, the increasing number of leisure horses resulted in an increase in horse slaughter.
Protesters rode horses to storefronts, and Pennsylvania Senator Paul S.
After all of this time, though, the bubble has burst once more.
Even the poorest of Americans were not obligated to purchase “poor man’s beef,” which allowed American producers to continue exporting horse meat to Europe and Asia.
In the early 1980s, senators from Montana and Texas humiliated the Navy into eliminating horse meat from its commissary stores, and the Navy complied.
Horses who were sick, wounded, or distressed were driven great distances to be slaughtered in appalling conditions.
Cavel West, an Oregon horse slaughterhouse, was singled out for praise in the study.
ALF cell members were prosecuted and convicted of terrorism, although Cavel West was never rebuilt as a result of the incident.
Activists and politicians fought tirelessly in the years that followed to close the remaining abattoirs in the country.
As a result, the community of Kaufman, Texas, organized against a Belgian-owned slaughterhouse on the outskirts of town that paid no tax but dumped human waste into the drainage system.
The sole existing horse meat facility in the United States was destroyed by fire in DeKalb, Illinois, for reasons that have not been determined.
Horse slaughter has been prohibited on American land, at least for the purpose of domestic food production.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The equestrian sector suffered a significant setback as a result of the global financial crisis in 2009.
Animal-welfare activists have been compared to Nazis by groups such as United Horsemen, which has appropriated Tea Party terminology.
When President Barack Obama signed a new law eliminating the bar on financing for inspections, both sides erupted in protest around the country.
The Obama administration’s 2014 budget one again ruled out a comeback.
As President Donald Trump turns to horse meat as a cost-cutting strategy, all of the classic inconsistencies of the American horse meat industry are being played out once more on the world stage.
Official government websites no longer provide information on animal welfare, and the administration is said to have asked the GAO to do another research evaluating the advantages of constructing domestic abattoirs.
The European Union is already wary of Mexican and Canadian exports originating in the United States, making horse meat less viable in any event.
Then Trump may find himself with a new political moniker: Horse-Meat Donny, if the situation continues. Object Lessons has provided permission for this material to be published.
Why we don’t eat horse meat: It’s economics
What is it about horse flesh that we find so repulsive? Because of the finding of horse meat residues in food items that were meant to be beef or pork, there was a crisis in the United Kingdom. Ikea was forced to recall its Swedish meatballs from stores in 21 European nations, the most recent of which was in Sweden. Related: According to IKEA, there is no horse in their meatballs in the United States. There is little doubt that the mislabeling of food is at the heart of the problem. Many individuals in the United Kingdom and the United States find the entire thought of eating horse revolting, despite the fact that horse is regarded a respectable food item in several regions of the world, including many Asian countries.
- However, it is possible that the underlying cause is something more banal: plain economics.
- Much more plausible is that the aversion developed as a result of simple home economics principles.
- If you look at it in terms of calorie content, 3 ounces of beef gives you more bang per pound, according to Slate’s Brian Palmer: 149 calories and 24 grams of protein are contained in a three-ounce meal of roast horse, along with five grams of fat.
- Horse milk, which some Central Asians consume in fermented form, has one-third the fat found in cow’s milk and is thus more nutritious.
- It is only because we have abundant supplies of calories and fat available to us that this is the case.
- Northern Europeans in the Middle Ages would have welcomed beef’s increased calorie and fat content since it provided them with more energy.
- Furthermore, due to the differences in digestive systems between horses and cows, cows are more efficient feeders than horses.
This isn’t only an issue of physical size, though.
This is due to the fact that the digestive systems of the animals are different from one another.
The fermentation processes in the cecum and rumen are quite similar.
This is due to the fact that cattle regurgitate and chew partly digested food (known as “cud”) on a regular basis.
Another reason cattle are more effective is because the food they eat is digested by bacteria before it reaches the real stomach, which makes them more efficient.
To put it another way, individuals who favored beef over horse meat would have been healthier, heartier, and more efficient in their use of available resources.
Over time, the beef eaters would win over the horse eaters in the battle for resources.
Early Christian leadership may have encouraged some Europeans to avoid eating horse flesh, but historians believe that the more efficient culinary taste would have prevailed even if the Pope had not issued a decree against it.
Americans Don’t Eat Horses
It was suggested in a recent article that America’s cowboy culture is the only reason we don’t eat horses, but there is much more to the story (“Horse Slaughter Issue Won’t Go Away,” October 25) than that. However, while it is true that our country was established on the backs of horses, and the image of a wild horse galloping over the plains is the most enduring emblem of the American spirit, the reality is that American horses are trained to be rivals and friends rather than food. The horse slaughter procedure, whether it takes place in the United States or outside of our borders, is violent and horrifying for the horses involved.
Because of its cancer-causing qualities, the Food and Medicine Administration and the European Union have outlawed the use of phenylbutazone in animals reared for food.
Horses are not eaten in the United States, and Americans do not want them to be inhumanely slaughtered and shipped abroad to be sold as a high-priced appetizer.
The vast majority of horse owners achieve fair and humane outcomes for their animals, whether by selling or leasing them, donating them to therapeutic riding or mounted police programs, or re-homing them in a rescue facility or sanctuary.
1176/H.R.
– Keith Dane works as the director of horse protection at The Humane Society of the United States (The Humane Society).