"Food is treated as a commodity - not seen as something that contributes to well-being

By JILL LAWLESS and LORI HINNANT

LONDON (AP) - First, there was "pink slime." Then horsemeat. Most recently? "Desinewed meat."

Recent revelations that such products have reached dinner tables, including horsemeat falsely labeled as beef in Europe, have cast an unappetizing light on the global food industry.

Critics say the widening horsemeat scandal in particular is a result of a food supply chain that has become too complex to be safe. Others say we are stuck with the system: In today's world, foodstuffs are highly mobile commodities, while consumers have come to expect - and increasingly need - plentiful, cheap meat.

Genevieve Cazes-Valette, a French anthropologist who studies food, said that throughout history, people around the world have had a special and intense relationship with meat.

"We reckon there could be as many as 70,000 horses unaccounted for..."

"When we fast, we don't give up bread. We give up meat," she said.

A century ago, meat was a dish primarily for special occasions or the rich. That's still the case in much of the world, but today consumers in wealthy countries expect meat to be their primary source of protein, and they want it inexpensive and convenient. They'd also prefer not to think too hard about where it came from.

"They want cheap and they want good," Cazes-Valette said.

"In France as elsewhere, people have this idea that we don't know quite what we're eating. We don't know where it comes from. We don't know who has touched it

"Food is treated as a commodity," she said. "It is not seen as something that contributes to well-being.

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