How Does Hilal Affect Kazakhstan Beef Production

The Kazakh case for eating horsemeat in California

Three horse-head statues annunciate a horsemeat butcher shop in Paris. Many countries condemn eating horses.

Jacques Brinon/Associated Press 2013

Have you e'er tried beshbarmaq?

Republic of kazakhstan'south main traditional dish is translated from Kazakh every bit "five fingers," conveying that the meal is meant to exist eaten with bare hands. Although it might wait exotic and hard to cook, in fact, the ingredients are pretty simple. It is made of boiled rectangular pieces of dough called jaima and served with onion sauce and spiked with salt and pepper.

The centerpiece is … horsemeat.

Equine meat is perceived differently from country to country. Some find it exotic or strange. Others believe that it is harmful and toxic. In the American West, many perceive it to exist inhumane. California voters banned the sale of horsemeat in 1998 and fabricated it a felony to slaughter a horse for homo consumption.

However, horsemeat is the cadre of my habitation land of Kazakhstan'southward national cuisine. So please indulge me for a moment as I cast a low-cal on this taboo meat.

Horsemeat is a blazon of reddish meat, merely it'south different from beef; I find information technology to have a richer flavor and texture. Get-go-timers might think that it tastes something closer to venison, although some say information technology is hard to distinguish from beef.

Although the consumption of equine meat is condemned by many countries, its health benefits compared with other types of meat are worth considering.

Not simply does horsemeat have more than protein than beef, it also is lower in fat, cholesterol and calories. In addition, horsemeat has a amend ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fat acids, which tin can be constructive in preventing cardiovascular diseases. Horsemeat likewise has more iron than other meats such equally beefiness or pork and contains a good amount of zinc, which has proven to exist vital for os growth and repair. This is perhaps why it's so popular in children's diets in some European countries such as Italia and Belgium.

It also has good amounts of the minerals selenium and phosphorus and of the B vitamins niacin, B6 and B12. Horsemeat has more than double the corporeality of iron than ground beef.

Given America'south taste for meat, supplanting much of the country's beef consumption with horsemeat is arguably worthy of being given a risk on the merits of public wellness lonely.

Yet, there are other benefits to horsemeat equally well, including the fact that it is more than affordable than many other types of meat.

The price of beefiness per ton on the global auction market is $five,300 whereas horsemeat is $1,200 per ton. In a fourth dimension of extreme economical uncertainty due to COVID-nineteen, pivoting to equine meat instead of, say, ground beefiness, could provide millions of Americans with an inexpensive source of protein.

Perhaps most importantly, however, supplanting more than beef with horsemeat would contribute to a pregnant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Global meat production is responsible for roughly 18% of all homo-produced greenhouse gas emissions, much of that from cows. Methane produced past cows as a consequence of enteric fermentation poses a risk of global warming 25 times higher than of carbon dioxide.

And cows create a lot of marsh gas. A unmarried cow can discharge upward of 220 pounds of the greenhouse gas per year.

Unlike cows, horses digest differently. A horse has a single stomach, which makes information technology a fussy grazer. Therefore, it tin can only deal with hands digestible carbohydrates. Thus, horses produce less methane than cows.

Put merely, the planet would exist a much safer identify if the majority of meat eaters developed a gustatory modality for horsemeat instead of beef.

Many can and do argue that eating a equus caballus is inappropriate due to the fact that horses are seen as companions and pets rather than food sources. As a Kazakh, I admit I find this mentality strange.

What's the difference between a horse and a moo-cow, a craven or a sheep? All can be companionable. If you don't gag at consuming beefiness, poultry or lamb, why exercise yous unmarried out horsemeat?

As an originally nomadic people, Kazakhs celebrate the equus caballus as the nearly significant feature of our national identity. The horse has played a central role throughout Kazakh history as provider of transportation, labor, companionship and, yeah, food.

Information technology is therefore entirely unsurprising to notice that horses characteristic heavily in the rituals, art and cuisine of the region. Equine meat has been a diet for the Kazakh people since our creation. We see no contradiction betwixt loving to ride horses and loving to swallow them.

In fact, our cuisine largely revolves around horsemeat. Almost all the restaurants and cafes in Kazakhstan serve it.

Traditional Kazakh palau is rice and vegetables accompanied with fried horsemeat. It is hard to imagine a Kazakh feast or a big family commemoration without qazy and shujyq, smoked horsemeat sausages, which ever control the center of the festive table.

Then there is quyrdaq, my personal favorite. Information technology is horsemeat in gravy with potatoes and big rings of onions spiced with garlic and whole black pepper.

These are simply my pocket-size personal selection of dishes fabricated of horsemeat, which is so ingrained in our culture. There are many more.

If the health, cost or climate benefits of horsemeat leave U.S. consumers unconvinced, perhaps they should try delicious beshbarmaq or other Kazakh dishes. Maybe the juicy flavor of a properly cooked Kazakh-style meal is what it volition have to modify attitudes towards the human consumption of horsemeat.

Shingis Kudaibergen is a graduate student at UC Berkeley. He is from far Kazakhstan, the land of nomads.

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Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/The-Kazakh-case-for-eating-horsemeat-in-California-16419970.php

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