Horsemeat and arsenic

March 1, 2013, 8:52 pm

England and some other European countries have, as someone said the other day, got up on their hind legs because beef they consume have been found to be mixed with horsemeat, which is a taboo food in some parts of the world whereas it is a delicacy elsewhere. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, eh?

Several international supermarket and fast food chains are in deep trouble, not knowing what to do with the contaminated meat stocks to be removed from their stores. A German politician has stirred up a hornets’ nest by suggesting that ‘horse-beef’ be distributed among the poor instead of being destroyed. He has drawn heavy flak for ‘insulting’ the marginalised sections of society, but he insists that his is a practical solution which would benefit the hungry. Beggars, he seems to think, are no choosers.

We bet our bottom dollar or euro that Europe will not destroy the beef mixed with horsemeat. Like all other contaminated food stuff, it will find its way into this part of the world where anything goes thanks to the notoriously lax food safety laws and regulations. Perhaps, the whole lot of rejected meat from Europe could be brought here for the consumption of our honourable parliamentarians who, with their eclectic culinary tastes, have an enormous appetite for anything that moves. They have demanded and got pork back in the parliamentary canteen and they will certainly relish imported horsemeat which might help them hone their horse trading skills.

Horsemeat found in beef has jolted western governments into ordering probes as if it were poison, but ours does not give a tinker’s damn about poisons that have got into the food chain through agro chemicals which, according to some environmentalists and scientists, contain high levels of heavy metals. The North Central Province kidney disease believed to be caused by arsenic, cadmium etc is spreading to other areas, especially the Southern Province, where farmers are staging protests. The government has sought to play politics with the heavy metal toxicity issue and, true to form, concocted a conspiracy theory. Some of its politicians given to wrapping themselves in the flag have declared that they will eat rice even if it is contaminated with arsenic, giving the impression to the public that those who are campaigning against arsenic are on a mission to wean people from eating rice and ruin the local paddy industry. Our patriotic government politicians are thus tilting at rice mills, as it were, while people are dying of renal failure! Apart from appointing some committees, it has done precious little to address this serious health problem. Regrettably, there is no consensus on the causative factors even among experts, who are quarrelling over each other’s research findings. Their professional jealousies and prejudices have taken precedence over their desire to help battle the insidious killer. Some of them have even ruled out arsenic as the cause!

The government’s failure to act the way it should in regulating agro chemicals has led to a situation where some organisations have come forward to protect the public. JHU firebrand Ven. Athuraliye Ratana Thera, who represents a pressure group called ‘Pivithuru Hetak’, is reported to have threatened direct action against the companies that deal in agro chemicals containing high levels of arsenic, cadmium etc. Ironically, among those responsible for marketing agro chemicals with high heavy metal concentrations in this country are said to be some multinationals based in the West, where a big issue has been made of horsemeat.

The government had better get cracking without adopting dilatory tactics to ensure food safety. It has a lot to learn from its western counterparts.

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