More horse please, we're French

In all the fuss about horsemeat being fed to unsuspecting meatball eaters and others, it's perhaps easy to forget that horse is one of the animals that human beings have traditionally eaten, along with probably every other animal species without exception.

According to Hugh Schofield, writing in "Paris Chefs Kickstart a Horsemeat Gastro-trend", the French decline in horsemeat eating, a relatively recent cultural characteristic which may have been born largely of necessity, is stabilising and may even be enjoying a resurgence in popularity based on taste and health considerations (2013).

Australia's tasty coat of arms

Apart from Schofield's main idea, that the tradition of eating horse in France is not about to die out this week, there were a couple of points that interested me. First is the quotation that concludes the story: "Why should I care that it is a horse? We eat chickens, we eat cuddly rabbits and baby lambs. What's the difference?" (2013) And he is right. In Australia, kangaroo has long been an increasingly popular meat. This has sometimes surprised my friends who wonder how we can gobble up our national symbol, but it tastes good, is at least as healthy as beef, and there is no shortage of kangaroos hopping around the place. I usually have a kangaroo steak on my annual visit back. Emu, which features in the Australian coat of arms along with the kangaroo, is also eaten, though it's not so common, probably because of the higher cost, or maybe giant chickens just don't appeal to so many. The koala, that lazy and useless eater of leaves, has not made the menu, apparently because its taste isn't very pleasant, which is hardly surprising given it's extremely restricted diet of eucalyptus leaves. Koalas are also rather smelly and unpleasant animals, but cute from a distance. My brother has them on his property, and the young nieces and nephews do still like to do some spotting of this iconic Australian animal when they visit. One of the highlights of my modest book collection is an old copy of the classic cookery book Larousse Gastronomique, which contains a recipe for elephant trunk soup. But it's very hard to find elephants or elephant meat in Australia.

One of the other points that interested me is that argued by chef Otis Lebert, who points out that putting horse on the menu also ensures survival of the species. Perhaps if the taste for rhino could be cultivated so that those animals had greater economic value, they would be saved from extinction? If an animal has some value to human producers, they do tend to breed and protect that animal: cows, pigs, chickens and sheep are  in no danger of extinction precisely because so many humans work hard to breed and protect them from poachers. It's hard to understand why anyone would think rhino horn had any medicinal value, but even such a false and unfounded cultural belief, perfectly idiotic in fact, could perhaps be turned to benefitting those endangered animals rather than threatening them as it does at present with laws that make rhinoceros breeding and protection for profit illegal. But of course, many laws that are made up are both irrational and unjust.

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Reference

Schofield, H. (2013, March 4). Paris chefs kickstart a horsemeat gastro-trend. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved March 4, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21324523