More thoughts on the horse meat scandal

Nearly a month ago when the horse meat scandal first broke I wrote on this blog about my friend Bill the butcher at Dunston Park Farm and the importance of finding out where your meat comes from (original post here). But the issue shows no signs of abating - in fact quite the opposite - so I think it's worth revisiting. Because if ever you needed a reason to start shopping local, this is it!

This weekend the Environment Secretary warned consumers to prepare for more cases of contaminated meat, as the results of more tests by the Food Standards Agency are due out on Friday. Already they've found horse meat in supermarket burgers and one ready meal brand has taken its frozen beef lasagnes off the shelves after some were found to contain 100% horse meat.

As a consumer I think the biggest question is WHY these companies do not know what meat is going into their products. Surely it is their responsibility to know? And if they don't know that they're flogging horse meat burgers and lasagnes, then what else don't they know about the food that is on our shelves? Just what else are they feeding us?

Some commentators are asking what the difference is between eating a horse and eating a cow. It's a fair point - both are mammals and both are capable of feeling great pain and distress. As a vegetarian I would urge people not to eat either!

My lovely horse. Do you really want him turning up in a lasagne?

But as a horse lover and horse owner, the unregulated appearance of equines in our food is of grave concern because the horse meat trade in Europe is nowhere near as well policed as our own British farming and slaughter practices, and these highly sensitive animals are subject to great levels of suffering. 

The World Horse Welfare charity claims that the majority of horses destined for human consumption are sourced from Eastern Europe, with many travelling "for days on end over thousands of miles with little food, water or rest, enduring terrible conditions, pain, injury, dehydration and disease". An investigation by the charity in 2010-11 found that 85% of horses destined for slaughter had at least one acute injury.

Do you really want to eat these animals? 

Up until now a mixture of clever packaging and advertising has allowed the average shopper to become largely detached from the fact that meat was once part of another living being. Meat can be bought already skinned and boned, wrapped in breadcrumbs or even already part of a cooked dish. All you have to do in some cases is bung it in the microwave. So there's been no need to think about where it's come from and I reckon a lot of consumers have buried their heads in the sand simply because they like the taste of drumsticks or lasagne.

Now the blinkers are off, hopefully our attitude to meat will change.

If you really want to know where your meat comes from, what it contains and what you're putting into your body or feeding to your children, you need to befriend a local butcher. Yes the shop can appear unsavoury, with slabs of flesh on display behind the counter, but that's what meat is. Get over it and start asking questions. You'll enjoy it a lot more when you know your sausages contain 100% pork products made from pigs that have led a good life at a local farm.

And learn to cook. You don't need to run the risk of eating ready meals with all their mystery ingredients. Dishes like lasagne and cottage pie are really very easy to put together and can be portioned up and frozen for those mid-week nights.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if this scandal turned out to be the final straw that made the British public reconnect with their food?