If offered, would you eat horsemeat?
According to the USDA, 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. It also contains fewer calories, and significantly higher omega-3 fatty acid concentration (that’s the good fat)—with 300 mg per 100 grams serving, compared to just 21 mg in a beef steak. It also tastes good.
In South America, China, Japan, and many European countries including Italy and Switzerland, horse meat is just as common on the dinner table as any other meat. The eight most populous countries in the world consume almost 5 million horses every year. But most Americans wouldn’t eat horse meat even if you paid them.
The consumption of horse meat has a long, odd and intriguing history. Catholic prejudice started back in the eighth century when Pope Gregory III prohibited eating the meat because of its association with pagan sacrifice. The ban was temporarily lifted several hundred years later when Icelanders refused to convert unless they could continue to eat horse meat. After the pontiff conceded their right to consume whatever they wanted, Icelanders adopted Christianity en masse in 1000.
The Catholic ban was removed and re-instated several more times over the centuries until it was finally dropped for good. Still, in some Catholic minds there remains a religious ambivalence about eating horses.
The French date their taste for horse meat to the Revolution. Peasants felt a certain glee consuming horses the aristocracy had recently paraded around to show off their wealth. First the rabble cut off their rulers’ heads, and then they ate their horses.
During World War II, when beef was in short supply and rationed, many Americans got their protein boost from horse meat. Again in the early 1970s when beef prices went through the roof, cash-strapped shoppers were happy to buy cheap horse meat. The practice was so common it showed up as a subplot on a 1973 episode of “All in the Family.”
But Americans generally consider horse meat off-limits, while the rest of the world consumes it with relish. They eat horse meat in Canada and Mexico, why not here?
Maybe it has to do with Roy Rogers. Before the invention of the automobile, horses were needed for labor and transportation. When they got too old or lame for work they were slaughtered and their parts turned into useful products. About the same time as cars replaced horses, motion pictures made heroes out of cowboys and their steeds. As western mythology grew, interest in eating horse meat declined. It’s difficult for most Americans to develop a taste for something formerly named Trigger.
Also, eighty-five percent of horse owners are women. As youngsters they read Black Beauty and watched National Velvet, not to mention collected piles of My Little Ponies. Their sentimental attachment to horses is both personal and cultural. They can’t imagine eating such a noble creature.
There’s one thing I don’t hear much amid the outcry about butchering Black Beauty. More Americans are hungry now than at any time in living memory, particularly children. They aren’t getting the nutrition they need, partly because of the soaring cost of fresh meat, including beef, pork and chicken. Given most American’s hesitancy to eat horse meat, we can assume the price will stay low. If they were provided the opportunity, the poorest Americans might be able to eat lean fresh meat more frequently, and it probably would be a lot better for them than the processed food many currently consume.
The whole issue of eating horsemeat has been in the news lately because of a labeling uproar in the UK. In our country there’s no opportunity to eat horse meat because six years ago Congress took away funding for USDA horse meat inspectors, forcing closure of all facilities that slaughtered horses in the US. However, in late 2011 that funding was restored after a GAO report found the ban caused a large increase in horse neglect, abuse and abandonment, as well as put financial stress on cities and counties left to feed and care of animalsdumped in public places and on private land. A new slaughter facility is due to open in New Mexico soon.
Passionate horse lovers think eating equine meat is barbaric. Nutritionists say it’s a shame such a healthy protein is not available to those who want and need it. Most of the world shakes its head in amusement. What do you think?
Are you ready to eat horsemeat?