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Eating horsemeat in France

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Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#181

Post by Sharlin »

karaterobot wrote: post #93
Sharlin wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The psychology of eating animals is definitely a great example of how people compartmentalize and simply avoid thinking about the details too much in order to evade cognitive dissonance. Which is also why so many respond with hostility when prompted to do so. (Disclaimer: I'm an omnivore.)

In most cases, if you grow up eating something, it's normal. If you don't, it's unusual. Sometimes people think things are disgusting when they really mean they're not used to them. I think that explains about 95% of it.

I think there’s an important distinction to be made between being disgusted by the thought of eating escargots and being morally judgemental of the thought of eating horses. That said, it is not a far-fetched idea that moral disgust has its roots in the more visceral feeling of physical disgust, as evinced by the alimentary restrictions imposed by some religions.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#182

Post by dreamcompiler »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #88
dreamcompiler wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My SO who lived for a time in the UK refuses to eat lamb in the US because "it's terrible." Apparently lamb in the UK is the gold standard for quality.

To go with your SO, meat is generally of a higher quality in Europe than the US due to the far more stringent regulations regarding production. It's also why Europeans tend to be far more relaxed than Americans regarding how meat is cooked.

My US friends give me grief when I tell them I've eaten at McDonalds in Italy. "You went to Italy and ate at McDonalds???"

Yes. Yes I have. A few times. Nobody believes me when I tell them McDonalds burgers are much better in Europe than in the US. Plus they sometimes have an excellent espresso bar right there in the restaurant.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#183

Post by [deleted] »

seanwilson wrote: post #112
somewhereoutth wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really deep down, i.e. at the level of hunger and what looks tasty to your body, eating animals is very right. They are a fantastic source of nutrition. However, we also like to domesticate animals, as companions and helpers. Hence the conflict. We eat way too much meat, but strict vegetarianism and especially veganism does not scale to the whole population of the planet - animals are simply too efficient at converti…

> animals are simply too efficient at converting what we can grow everywhere but can't eat ... Simply, an exclusively plant based diet would require the elimination (by starvation?) of who knows, 90% of the world population? "Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, with most of this used to raise livestock for dairy and meat. Livestock are fed from two sources – lands on which the animals graze an…

[deleted]

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#184

Post by dundarious »

doctor_eval wrote: post #65
aspyct wrote: post #42

It's the first time I see a picture of edible meat and feel repulsed by it. Interesting. Bit of background about me: I really like horses. They're friends to me. I see why people eat them, but that just sounds wrong, just writing it. I... I guess I understand why vegetarians don't like meat, now.

I’m not here to judge anyone for eating meat, despite being vegetarian, but I agree with the other comments here, if you eat cows or pigs or sheep or chickens then why not cockatoos or horses or dogs (or feral cats, which are consumed in some parts of Australia)? I don’t eat any of these creatures, but nevertheless, I just don’t get why certain animals seem to be culturally off limits for those who do eat meat. Is it…

I used to eat meat (I don’t anymore but the reasons are irrelevant), and have eaten dog (once) and a bunch of other “atypical for the US” animals (usually just once or twice). But even then, when I was thinking that most of the cultural limits around eating particular animals were arbitrary, I still worried that I wasn’t just eating some dog, maybe I was eating someone’s dog. In practice, the probability was extremely low (and it was still possible even for cows, though even less likely) but the seeming category overlap in the case of dogs added psychological friction.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#185

Post by systemvoltage »

acer4666 wrote: post #158
systemvoltage wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surprisingly, it is illegal in Texas Why is it suprising? Horses are an integral part of history and culture of Texas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy

Should it be illegal to eat peaches in Atlanta?

Are peaches used for anything else other than eating? The culture is based on eating peaches and they grow by the millions. It would be surprising if they made eating peaches illegal.

I suspect it is contemptous to eat an horse in Texas precisely because it provides a livelihood and killing one to eat is probably not a wise idea. Culturally, it is entirely understandable just like cows in India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_in_religion_and_mytholo...

I am not here to argue whether it is ok to eat a horse or not. I am debating about whether it is surprising or not. It is not surprising at all IMO.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#186

Post by systemvoltage »

meheleventyone wrote: post #156
systemvoltage wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surprisingly, it is illegal in Texas Why is it suprising? Horses are an integral part of history and culture of Texas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy

Horses are integral to the history and culture of Iceland to the point of having an exclusive breed of horses with their own unique gait yet you can still eat horse here.

That's indeed surprising, in a similar vein as if we made eating dogs a normal thing. Some cultures have (China).

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#187

Post by the-smug-one »

null_object wrote: post #43
bipson wrote: post #10

Eating horse meat was very common in central Europe before the big wars. In WWI and WWII even more so, horses were declared essential for the war in axis countries, and eating them became illegal. In Italy horse meat picked right up again after WWII, but in Austria and Germany people forgot about the reasons it seems and it stayed unacceptable/frowned upon. You can find (excellent) horse meat products in western Aust…

In Sweden horsemeat used to be sold commonly in supermarkets everywhere as thinly sliced sandwich charcuterie. Interestingly it’s called “hamburger-meat”. The last 10 or so years I’ve noticed it’s gradually disappeared from Stockholm stores.

Restaurant Bergamott has horse filet if you're interested.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#188

Post by thehappypm »

protonbob wrote: post #34
baliex wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know what you mean, because of those 3 species, dogs are the only ones to be commonly kept as pets. But what is it that puts horses, dogs, and cows in the same/different categories?

I would say a dog being a carnivore puts it in a different category. The same reason I wouldn't want to eat a wolf or a big cat.

This is actually a really good point. Dogs will eat really disgusting food, perusing the trash or eating poop at times.. I wouldn’t eat a raccoon for the same reason. Horses and cattle eat grass, they’re vegan

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#189

Post by xattt »

jhrmnn wrote: post #45
xattt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also get this reaction if you declare having eaten what I would call secondary meats (rabbit, duck, lamb).

Interesting! Is this US-specific?

My experience with squeamishness around meats varies depending on the crowd. People I know who I would consider to be a sample of the Canadian general population tend to stick to the meat trinity.

Folks who are from multicultural groups are definitely more experimental with other kinds of meats.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#190

Post by em-bee »

ciguy wrote: post #78
dreamcompiler wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can get horse meat in Japan too. (I think they mostly import it from France these days.) I had a nice cheval carpaccio there once, at the insistence of my Japanese hosts. It tasted good, but I have no desire to eat it again. I don't intend to ever try dog. From what I've heard the meat of carnivores tastes unpleasant, but that might be folklore.

Dog tastes nothing like chicken it's a much darker meat. I had it in China and it wasn't exactly unpleasant but definitely what we in the USA would describe as gamey. Basically pungent and heavy on flavor. The preparation I had was in Sichuan so they added tons of red chilies as well so it was very spicy. I wouldn't eat it again, once was enough.

the primary problem with dogs is that you don't know where they come from. there is no guarantee that dogs are raised in a healthy way specifically to be eaten, like sheep or chicken, but there is a high risk that the dogs are caught on the street, and have been feeding on whatever trash they found. and you don't know what kind of diseases they had either. basically, i would treat dogs like rats, unless the restaurant can certify that their dogs actually came from a farm for that purpose.
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