NOBULL: The Taste of Irish Austerity Is Horsemeat

The Taste of Irish Austerity Is Horsemeat

The story behind the scandal of equine-tainted beef in the E.U.

July 8, 2013

Willy Blackmore

Brad Pitt played an Irish Traveler in the 2000 film ‘Snatch.’

Diets change in times of strife. Scraps that might be tossed away in less frugal days are looked upon as a meal in their own right. Weeds are sustenance, bread is puffed up with the otherwise inedible. And in the worst-case scenario, the family pet might have to become the next family meal.

In cultures where eating dogs or horse is taboo, desperation can bring about such a transgression. But it appears that globalization has changed the diet of austerity: Now the poor are selling the meat of horses owned by the previously, fleetingly rich, feeding the unwitting middle-class of an entire continent with equine-tainted meat. (MORE)