Horsemeat hysteria is helping no-one
So it seems that the issue of horsemeat has once again reared its head in the news and demanded the indignation of the nation. But is anger and outrage really the way to go about it? We are inundated and replete with the war cries of politicians, newsperson and other public commentators calling of blood and advising all of us to feel deeply outraged at this travesty that has befallen our unsuspecting nation.
When the issue was first brought to public attention it struck me as odd that so many seemed to take offence to the issue. Surely if it had been discovered that beef burgers had been contaminated with lamb there would have been nowhere near the level of impassioned response. In many ways it’s a cultural issue. We in the UK are not accustomed to regarding equines as good eating, unlike say sheep babies or bird embryos, associating them more with pageantry and racing. They are very much an animal that serves us best as decoration than served to us as a main course. Yet in such distant and exotic realms as Mongolia or France the humble horse can make for a tasty entrée.
So what is there to be concerned over? Certainly there are issues of false advertising. If I buy a Tesco ready burger I intend to get something that contains beef, and hopefully little else. I suppose if you have some religious aversion to horsemeat you may be justified in your indignation, but then I am fairly sure that most religions with significant dietary requirements would automatically rule out Tesco ready meals and the like, as would a decent appreciation for good food.
The issue of untraced meat in the food chain is of course worrying. We have regulations on the industry for a reason, and if those regulations have been flaunted, then something has definitely gone wrong. There remains the potential for all sorts of nasty things entering the food chain that I would rather not think about.
But at present this doesn’t seem to be the case. True there is the more recently discovered issue of Bute, a painkiller given to horses and may pose a possible threat to humans. But this is mostly a non-issue. Bute provides an infinitesimally small risk to a tiny section of the public, and thus far no traces of Bute have been located in any horse enhanced produce. In the possible event that Bute is present in some of it, then you would have to devour somewhere in the region of 500-600 pure infected horse burgers before the Bute causes any serious harm. Suffice it to say, if you manage to eat that many burgers your demise would probably be for the best, environmentally speaking of course.
Some might say that I am promoting apathy in the light of a possible crisis, and to a certain extent I am, if we were to use the term as the ancient Stoics understood it: acting rationally without emotions clouding our judgement.
Have sane laws and regulations been violated? Possibly, and those who have done so should face justice. Is it wrong to sell a product under the wrong name? Yes, and we should take steps to ensure that the practice stops. Has anyone actually suffered? Not to my knowledge, but if they have they should be compensated.
But the impassioned calls for blood from sycophantic politicians desperately trying to show that they are more offended, more impassioned and more willing to unleash all the forces at their disposal, whenever their ire is raised, than their political opponents are, is neither helpful nor intelligent. Figures of political significance should seldom resort to this sort of juvenile demagoguery, where each commentator tries to outdo each other in childish fury and extreme measures, especially not over such an insignificant issue. Letting emotion rule politics is a bad habit for politicians to get into, it drives them to more extreme measures whilst the more moderate voices are portrayed as weak and indecisive and thus become marginalised. Furthermore, when emotion and rhetoric become virtues of public office, and the people, likewise emotionally charged, reward that sort of behaviour at election time, it only reinforces the problem in a vicious cycle.
So how should we deal with this? Although most meat is probably safe to eat, there does remain a small chance that there might be contaminants. So eat less meat. Loath as I am to condone the propaganda of vegetarianism, cutting back would probably be for the best at the moment, especially given the environmental, health and economic considerations involved. But there’s no need to lose our heads over it.