Horsemeat scandal causes food for thought

As UK-wide test results on beef products begin to be released, public alarm at the widespread presence of horsemeat grows. The horsemeat scandal broke on 16 January when the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found traces of equine DNA in beefburgers being sold in supermarkets. Aldi, Iceland, Lidl and Tesco were forced to recall products in Ireland and the UK and fast-food chain Burger King has admitted that its burgers were contaminated. Some of the lasagnes made by frozen-food company Findus were found to contain 100 per cent horsemeat. The scandal raises a number of concerns for the public: Is it right to eat an animal that is not perceived to be a natural part of our cultural culinary tradition? Why has there been a cover-up regarding the actual contents of the food we eat? Many vegetarians have always had concerns about the lack of transparency within the meat industry, asking whether consumers of meat can ever truly know what they are eating and whether the animals have been slaughtered by a ‘humane’ method. The fact there is now such a scandal illustrates the flawed area of thinking in which cows and other ‘food animals’ are considered less deserving of compassion than horses, who are just as smart and sensitive. The process of deindividualisation of animals has sadly become entrenched within our society – yet regardless of whether the slaughtered animal are pigs, cows or horses, they are all still sentient beings with the capacity to feel pain. Horses are not considered kosher, as they do not have split hooves, so the Jewish community might feel ‘safe’. But let’s not forget that the kosher food industry has had scandals too; in the last ten years a number of allegations and prosecutions were brought against the world’s largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors, in the USA, around issues of animal abuse, labour law, and food safety. Also important is the fact that Judaism is full of examples of compassion towards animals, and that the basis for an ethical Jewish lifestyle is to cause minimal damage to both the animal and environmental world, which are inextricably linked together. While the horsemeat scandal continues to rage, it is easy to see how a rich and varied vegetarian diet brings more certainty in what we eat and protects us from the potential contamination that can occur through meat consumption.