Beef burgers found to contain horsemeat NOW READY MEALS 100% horsemeat

[CocoNUT]

Awesome Southern!

Some people would argue that because this country was settled on horseback and BY horses...they are sacred! All of our Western movies use a lot of horses...they were our beasts of burden and allowed people to move west. They were here before the railroads. Also, horses can be seen as a 'status symbol' as generally, only wealthy people can AFFORD to keep and maintain them. Look at how dressage is such a 'fancy' sport...included in the olympics...but barrel racing isn't! Horses have been a VITAL TOOL for the expansion of the US and it's citizens and still maintains a working relationship with us. So emotionally, a LOT of people can't stomach the thought of eating a horse. (Think dolphins...thank you FLIPPER...they're so smart and social...who would EVER want to eat one of those? *sarcasm*) Veal and beef are OK because cows are "dumb."

Secondly...like someone had said earlier...a lot of drugs can be pumped into them (horses). I don't know if it still occurs...but horses were often used by pharmaceutical companies to produce estrogen adn progesterin for the manufacturing of 'the pill'. Those hormones were usually produced by pregnant horses who were continuously bred...their colts...not sure what happened to them.

Oh and Straw...where I grew up...people ate dogs. Heck..if your dog went missing...you sometimes didn't have to look TOO far...if you knew who your neighbors were and where they were from. Aboriginals in Australia have begun to hunt/consume feral cats...and the consumption of cats and dogs in other parts of the world is not uncommon. Dogs were kept by the Pacific Islanders and taken with them (along with pigs and chickens) on their voyages as a source of protein. If I've ever eaten either...I wasn't TOLD so. But I suspect I've had some somehwere along the line.

Like everyone...I'd rather be AWARE of what it is I'm eating...not have it slipped in there. I do know that if muslims can not find Halal food...they are allowed to eat kosher as a 'second best'...anything else is generally not acceptable!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

In America I believe it goes Biblical. The split hoof thing.

What is the split hoof thing?

Edited to add

Oh, you mean the Jewish law, cloven hoof/chews cud things. Not sure----doesn't seem like that would be the basis for a law on horse meat. Hmmmm.....I might need to do some googling

Edited again because now I am REALLY confused---is it illegal or not to butcher a horse for meat?

The Hebraic dietary law as was given in Leviticus 11 states very specific requirements as what G-d determined to be clean and unclean. It covers fish and fowl also. Unclean animals were forbidden because they pose a health risk to the human body. Unclean means to be defiled, foul, unfit. Any scavenger is unclean because they feed off of the dead.

Pigs were a sort of garbage disposal and pig in general is all fattoxins and waste are stored in the fat. Although the pig is cloven hooved..it does not chew its cud. Hence unclean. The camel is opposite.

Generally, cloven hooved AND chews cud is clean.

The slaughtering of animals was also important as strangled meat was forbidden.
The dietary requirements were all for the health of the people, to keep them from disease and illness. At one point the Egyptians accused the Hebrew people of cursing them because the Egyptians were dying of disease but the Hebrew people were not. It all came down to the food. To this day those who practice the Hebraic Dietary Laws- truly, not reformed have literally no cancers fertility issues or other health issues. There are very few who follow these.

Much of the dangerous bacterium comes from the slaughter houses which do not follow kosher slaughter methods. Acts 15:20 says to abstain from things strangled and blood. When an animal is killed improperly the blood remains in their bodies contrary to Lev 17:10-14. Of course the eating of blood was also forbidden. Acts 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols/false gods, and from blood, and from things strangled from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

In our area there are no Kosher slaughter houses, but there are Halal for those that follow the scriptures, although Halal does slaughter correctly, according to requirements, so to speak, the animals according to halal are prayed over and offered up to their god. Hence, if you are not a muslim, then it would be violating Acts 15:29. No kosher or Halal slaughter house will ever process a pig, or any other animal deemed unclean.

So there is the short end of it. For those who wanted to know. Some people care, some dont.

There is also a bit more in Deuteronomy if anyone is interested.





~as far as horses.... maybe because they are pets... :/

Thanks for sharing that!

 

[Royd Wood]

ok thanks for all the good posts so far BUT lets try and move away from the horse topic and focus on what the procesing plants are doing wrong and why the Irish food standards found it and not the British food standards which is what happened here with the Canadian beef scare - the US found e coli in the Canadian beef then it took weeks for the Canadian government to do anything
How is it possible to have a beef burger with 29% horse meat and some pork thrown in for good measure. Should the governments bring back all the small slaughter houses they hounded out of business ?????????
How safe is the food chain -
I would have said very safe 20 years ago if anyone had asked me but now I find I dont trust anything anymore unless I grow it - whats wrong with me

 

[goodolboy]

That's the reason we started raising sheep in the first place. To stay out of "The WalMart". We put up 12 lambs, 1 hog, and countless eggs each year. It's the best I've ever ate, and I'll NEVER go back.

 

[promiseacres]

That's the reason we started raising sheep in the first place. To stay out of "The WalMart". We put up 12 lambs, 1 hog, and countless eggs each year. It's the best I've ever ate, and I'll NEVER go back.

X2


Until the public wakes up about the true costs of "cheap" food not sure things like this wont continue...me and my family are really trying to get away from processed super preserved junk....but the general opinion wants cheap food they cant through into a microwave....I was there the same when was working being a Sahm has made me open my eyes and realize how nasty some of the processed foods are... in the short time of trying to stick to a mostly whole food diet I feel like my family as a whole is healthier

 

[Pearce Pastures]

In a world where I find myself completely lacking confidence in the foods I buy at the store, it makes sense more and more to raise our own even though the cost ends up being the same or more than store bought. The lack of thorough oversight in food production and the allowance of questionable practices in producing those products is a little frightening.

 

[Cricket]

So you don't think they're going to be able to pass off 29% horse meat as a "gee, we fired the idiot that forgot to clean the grinder" thing?

If you want to read about a threat to small producers/processors, google Green Mountain College oxen. A great essay: http://vtdigger.org/2012/10/30/acke...-a-parable-for-saving-our-broken-food-system/

(This fall a small agricultural college in VT decided to butcher their old team of oxen after one was injured. The decision was made BY THE STUDENTS to serve that meat in the cafeteria. Activists prevented that (actually threatened the slaughterhouses). They wanted the oxen to find a 'sanctuary' where they could live out their lives (no doubt in pain). The injured ox ended up being euthanized, which rendered the meat useless. I wouldn't have thought this would happen here.)

And if you read some of the comments after the essay . . . there's one beauty that said they should get their meat from a 'proper source', not an animal they knew.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Until the public wakes up about the true costs of "cheap" food not sure things like this wont continue

Agreed

 

[bonbean01]

Agree also.

To Southern...thank you for that post!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I used to volunteer at an Exotic Feline Breeding Compound, they would occasionally get horses that were old or lame donated and butcher them right there on the property for the big cats. I felt it was a very good and humane way to end a life that was suffering.

That being said, I used to have to cut up the horse meat for the cats and eewwwwwww ever since then I have REALLY been turned off by horsemeat. I would probably have tried eating it if it wasn't for that experience I had. It was just really weird and bad smelling to me. *shivers*.


I'l just continue to raise my own food thankyouverymuch.