Do We Have Horsemeat In Our Future In The U.S. Due To The Sequester?.......

[global1]

Just a thought. I keep hearing about the sequester and the effect on 'food and meat inspectors' should it become effective. I was thinking that another good motivator to prevent the sequester from kicking in is to say that if we wind up with fewer food and meat inspections due to the sequester - we stand a chance of 'horsemeat' creeping into our food chain here in the U.S.

Don't you think that this might get some heads a turning?

[hobbit709]

1. Nothing wrong with horsemeat per se.

It's when it's labeled as something else more expensive. People ate horse for thousands of years before learning to ride.

[wandy]

6. I've wondered about that.........

Although I think of horses more as a pet rather than a food animal, if correctly labeled would it be all that bad? Here in Co. the local supermarket offers Buffalo. In New York state you could occasional find venison.
Like Lamb, would it be a matter of taste? Could a Horse roast be any worse than Mutton?

[Autumn]

2. Better horse meat than mad cow. Did they ever start inspecting for mad cow?

I remember under Bush they didn't do it.

[aikoaiko]

3. I hope so. I hear its tasty.

Of course, I'm not into deception, but horse could be an interesting alternative to beef.

[postulater]

4. It's not just the sequester

"The long summer drought spawned a severe hay shortage in Wisconsin that's hitting horse owners and livestock farmers hard this winter.

Horse rescue groups, and private owners, are struggling to afford hay for their animals as the price has tripled in recent months to some of the highest levels ever seen.

"We were treading water to keep up. Now we're just under the surface," said Dee Dee Golberg, president of Spirit Horse Equine Rescue Center near Janesville.

In the past two weeks, Golberg has fielded many calls from desperate horse owners wanting her to take their animals because of the high cost of feed.

She can't do it, though, because the sanctuary already has 41 hungry horses to feed at a cost of about $900 a week - four times higher than the cost a year ago."

[link:http://www.jsonline.com/business/droughts-hay-prices-hit-horse-owners-hard-a98se19-192787661.html|

[Cobalt Violet]

5. I don't think they'll be able to pass horsemeat off as tofu.

Not worried about it. But I am worried about inadequate food inspection with or without the sequestration.

[1-Old-Man]

7. First off you have to disabuse yourself of the notion that there is inspection right now

Not much is going to change about meat inspection. Its almost non-existant right now. As for the eating of horse, I can't think of any good reason why anyone would, or to say it better, any reason to do it considering how much better other animals are at converting feed to meat. You can make chicken and pork a lot faster and cheaper and we have a massive industry set up to speed them to market. Putting horses in the line instead of cattle would be easy enough to do of course, but in terms of the expense to get the animal there compared to the value of the meat you'd be better off with a pig or a chicken every time.

[Gorp]

8. How about Jack-N-The-Box kangaroo meat?

I doubt that rumor was ever true, but whatever they put in the tacos wasn't "meat" of any sort. It was a lot of grease, taco spice, and some sort of ground up something or another. They weren't edible without about six packets of hot sauce per taco. We ate them anyway, but heck, we were in high school.