Top Chef Serves Up an Equine Challenge

This week’s episode of Top Chef Canada features one contestant preparing horse meat. Not surprisingly this has ignited a powder keg of controversy, and has even resulted in the creation of a Facebook page entitled “Boycott Top Chef- Protect the Horses!”.

Horse meat Consumption Worldwide

The consumption of horse meat has been prevalent in Europe, Asia, and South America for centuries. It is also consumed in Canada, and featured in many restaurants such as The Black Hoof in Toronto.

For most vegans, this doesn’t represent much of a moral challenge since horsemeat is just as wrong to consume as chicken, beef or pork. What is particularly interesting however is the reaction it has sparked in the omnivore community.

The Grey Area

This topic is so provocative because it raises several interesting questions for omnivores:

Why is it wrong to eat horsemeat, but ok to eat other meat?

Is this a culturally defensible practice, or is it an absolutely unacceptable offense?

Is the life of a horse more valid than that of a cow? Or a pig? Or a chicken?

Social Conditioning and the North American Palate

I think the most obvious reason why people are against eating horsemeat is simply because it is taboo. The horse has been anthropomorphised in media, literature, and movies. It is a symbol of strength, beauty, grace, power and so on. People have been conditioned not to eat horse, and to eat the faceless/nameless animals. Don’t eat Mr. Ed, eat the shrink wrapped chicken instead.

When people hear ‘horse’ they think of The Black Stallion. When people hear “pig” they think of bacon.

So, what do you think? Should horsemeat be allotted any special treatment? Is it hypocritical to watch Canada’s finest culinary stars butcher bovine or avian flesh, and then boycott the show when they serve an equine entree?

Let us know, leave your comments!

Courtesy of  Contributor Jenny Duffy

~The Vegan Project

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