Living Happy Without Meat

Horse meat faces ban in Italy

Horse meat, one of Italy’s most popu­lar culi­nary deli­ca­cies, is under threat from a cross party pro­po­sal to ban its sale.

Italy is the lar­gest con­su­mer of hor­se­meat in Europe with more than 48,000 metric ton­nes eaten every year and it is a com­mon dish among youngs­ters because of its high iron content.

Accor­ding to the Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­sa­tion 213,000 hor­ses are slaugh­te­red in Italy every year but now poli­ti­ci­ans from all par­ties are con­side­ring ban­ning its slaugh­ter and sale.

Fran­ce­sca Mar­tini, a mins­ter with the Ita­lian health minis­try and a mem­ber of the ruling Right-wing coali­tion, has put for­ward the bill, arguing that the “dignity of hor­ses should be respected”.

The motion is alre­ady on the desk of the Ita­lian parliament’s cul­ture com­mis­sion and has won con­side­r­a­bly cross party sup­port with oppo­si­tion centre-Left MPs also backing it.

Among those lea­ding the call for a ban is Italy’s agri­cul­ture minis­ter Luca Zaia who says hor­ses should not be eaten and instead “con­side­red just like cats and dogs”.

Mr Zaia said:“I have always been against the slaugh­ter and con­sump­tion of horse meat. Hor­ses are fine ani­mals and should be trea­ted as such, they should not be eaten.”

His sup­port has ange­red people who live in his home region of Veneto, which covers Venice and Verona, where horse meat is a culi­nary deli­cacy and fea­tures in several dishes.

Horse meat is used in a stew cal­led pas­tis­sada (typi­cal of Verona), ser­ved as horse or colt steaks, as car­pac­cio, or made into bresaola.

Horse fat is used in reci­pes such as “pez­zetti di cavallo” (pie­ces of hor­se­meat) and ano­ther favou­rite dish is horse in a bed of rocket, dres­sed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

Also in Veneto, hor­se­meat sau­sa­ges cal­led “sal­sic­cia di equino” or salami, and thin strips of horse meat cal­led “sfi­lacci” are sold and it has 8 per cent of the country’s natio­nal consumption.

Accor­ding to figu­res from the Ita­lian health depart­ment the aver­age natio­nal con­sump­tion is around a kilo of hor­se­meat per year per person.

Ita­lian news­pa­per web­sites car­ry­ing the report were floo­ded with com­ments from angry rea­ders in areas such as Veneto where hor­se­meat is popular.

One per­son in Venice wrote: “Why is the govern­ment try­ing to abolish some­thing that is buried in the roots of Ita­lian cul­ture? If it is ban­ned it will just be dri­ven under­ground and there will be a thri­ving black market.”

While ano­ther in Verona said: “Horse meat is part of the culi­nary cul­ture of my city. Poli­ti­ci­ans are always tal­king about the loss of tra­di­ti­ons but they are quite happy to get rid of this one when it suits them.”

Howe­ver the pro­po­sal was wel­co­med by the Ita­lian fede­ra­tion for equine sports and ani­mal cru­elty cha­ri­ties who said it was “legis­la­tion that had been long overdue”.

Horse meat has been a deli­cacy in Italy since the Roman times alt­hough during the Middle Ages Pope Gre­gory III did describe its con­sump­tion as “abominable” but his calls for it to be shun­ned were igno­red by hungry peasants.

In 1928 a law was intro­du­ced by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist govern­ment that only spe­cia­list horse but­chers could sell equine meat and they could not stock other cuts.

In order to meet the high demand for horse meat in Italy more than 20,000 hor­ses are impor­ted from Poland and Eas­tern Europe every year.

Source: Tele­graph

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