America
Is Europe’s Food Crisis Coming Here?
The recent horse meat scandal could be headed to America in unexpected ways.
T BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
he kinks in europe’s food chain that led to beef tainted with horse meat created scandalous headlines worldwide. But could the United States embrace the sale of horse meat? The answer is
surprising, as recently relaxed regulations could mean horse meat may soon fi nd its way to U.S. meat markets. To most Americans, the notion of eating horses is taboo,
as it is in the U.K., where frozen beef burgers containing horse meat were discovered in December and January. But in other countries in Europe, culinary traditions are diff er- ent. Some gourmands embrace horse meat as a delicacy. There has been speculation that some of the mislabeled
horse meat in the eurozone may have come from U.S. hors- es that were shipped off to Canada and Mexico for processing. As that suggests, American consumers are not as isolated from the horse meat issue as most seem to assume. That will become evident later this year when the nation’s only horse-meat slaughter house opens in Roswell, N.M. Other equine-processing plants have been proposed in Wyoming, Nebraska, and Missouri. Based on the growing international demand, most ana-
lysts expect it is only a matter of time until horse meat is made — and possibly sold — in America. Moreover, demand tends to spike during economic downturns, as horse meat costs only about half the price of beef. Last year alone, 160,000 live horses were shipped from
the United States to other nations for processing. That’s up from 120,000 in 2011. The horses are processed into meat, then shipped to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Russia. Processing equines for human consumption used to
be legal in the United States. Back in the 1980s, vendors pedaled horse meat patties in liberal bastions like Times Square in New York City and Pike Place Market in Seattle. In 2005 however, animal rights activists successfully lob- bied to have funding for Department of Agriculture inspec- tions removed from the yearly Agriculture Act. Without
26 NEWSMAX | MAY 2013
WHAT’S FOR DINNER Horse butcher shops, like this one in Paris, are common in other countries. Inset: Pike Place butcher shop in Seattle advertises horse meat, at one time sold legally in the U.S.
inspections, the meat could not be sold in the U.S. domestic market. The last American horse slaughterhouse was shut down by a court order in 2007. Some ranchers complained that actually created an overpopulation of horses, which were still exported for processing in other countries. But in 2011, the horse meat industry fought back. The
funding ban was lifted as part of a little-noticed change in a massive omnibus appropriations act passed by Congress. The USDA dragged its feet on reinstituting horse meat inspections, however. One horse-processing fi rm fi led a
BOUCHERIE/MARC PIASECKI/GETTY IMAGES PIKE PLACE/COURTESY OF SEATTLE MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES
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