Apologies for the self-quote, but I located video of this episode of "All In the Family". Warning: Might be offensive to some.
All in the Family - Edith's Conversion Part 1 of 3 - YouTube
Oh my gosh, I loved this-- thanks for posting! The cost of beef in the 70's went waaaaay out of sight. I recall my mother using soy "meat" products to stretch recipes, but often we just didn't have beef. We always had a bowl of shelled nuts on the table with several nutcrackers at the ready. We ate that as snacks. Very good protein sources and don't spoil. There were plenty of other options, for sure. (I went over and watched the rest of this episode, Archie never finds out but the puns and innuendos were abundant and hilarious! What a tour de force that show was! :clap: )
Nova, I have. When I was growing up in Belgium, we had a horse butcher in the same street. Fresh meat was only available every 2 weeks or so, but he had smoked meat and other treated meats.
I can actually say horse meat saved my life, well not actually saved my life, but helped me overcome a dangerously low blood pressure when I was about 18. Apart from medication, my GP told my mother to serve me horse meat (preferably filet) and as "blue" as I could stand it.
It is actually very tasty meat, completely different from beef, but can be an acquired taste.
My mother actually has eaten cat in her life. But then this was in 1943 when people in Antwerp were starting to get really hungry. In a city of about half a million people, not many wild cats were left and some domesticated cats went that way as well. No pigeons were left in the city either.
We all know what happened in Texas this summer-- cattle suffered horribly and died from drought and starvation (if they didn't make it to slaughter soon enough)-- this means two things, imo: Beef will be sky high again due to simple supply and demand, and cattlemen don't take kindly to dips in their profit margins, I sense they're poised to take over with "unwanted" horses.
Well, I have to ask-- in this country our appetite for red meat is gluttonous, do we really think they will stop at orphans? He77 no, they won't. They will breed and feed them soon after and horses will begin to live the life of huge agricultural concerns. Penned in filth, fed minimally or oddly (perhaps not even part of their natural diet in effort to make the meat more palatable to beef eaters), and these beautiful friendly creatures, who've served as man's salvation for thousands of years, will languish waiting for death to mercifully take them.
And why not cats and dogs? We have immigrant populations from every corner of the world who would eat any type of meat (and have, of course). Are we going to be offered a "pet rebate" at our Veterinarian's if we select to allow our faithful German Shepard (mine was about 90 lbs.) be sent to "market?" Well people be less likely to spay and neuter to become small farmers instead of pet breeders? You bet, you bet.
I think this is a dangerous precedent that truly illustrates the state of our economy and the future outlook of resources: we've been hammered, financially, we've outsourced our "menial" jobs, fuel prices went out of sight and didn't come back down (huge profits for the corps), packaging at the grocers got smaller (in the name of obesity/portions control and "room on the truck" (but really, don't you have to buy another one now? tuna for instance), and now the weather has compromised many, many, crops several years in a row. We are on the brink of a depression and this move stands out in bold red letters to me as a harbinger that yet another "new" American way that is going to be introduced so we all can
feel like things aren't that bad.
Fast foods will use it, processed foods will include it (you won't recognize the name in the ingredient's list unless you educate yourself), it will be in every school meal, served in hospitals and retirement homes-- and the butcher/grocery stores will put out a small section that will have to be restocked many times a day so it appears that folks aren't really making that choice very often.
All this won't come about from horses with no homes, they will be the leading edge to a mega industry. PETA will have many ads per day with a country singer regaling the virtues of his trusty steed, while we see horses whinny in recognition of their human "friends."
I'll say it again: good cheap proteins are beans and nuts. Look up the actual amounts needed to stay healthy-- hardly any at all. We just want to feel normal. I say, make these the new normal instead. Not apologizing for the rant, only the length of it!
JMO
