There’s a lot to know about this... And reporters will probably get most of it wrong. The horse meat scandal in Europe has to do, in part, with meat imported from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Some of the mexican horse meat is from American horses transported for slaughter.
A major issue with North American horse meat is that it is often high in drugs and chemicals that aren’t allowed in meat intended for human consumption. That’s because in North America horses aren’t typically raised as livestock for their meat, like cows. Horses here are raised as companion animals... work animals... race horses... Anything but meat animals. Meds are commonly given to them for any number of good reasons and there is no tracking system for horses over their lifetime. But they’re also not supposed to be finding their way into the meat markets either. But they are... And in Europe where there -is- a large market for horse meat, there’s the additional complication that horse meat is being quietly substituted for other meat in many products without be labeled as such.
And that, of course, is unethical and should be punished. But am I wrong to think that much of this scandal is emotional? I mean, if, for example, I really liked Ikea meatballs, it wouldn't bother me a bit to find out they had horsemeat in them.
If there is so much horse meat in the U.K./Europe bing sold as beef, why wasn’t the industry noticing a price hit?