"If We Say It's Beef It's Beef"

The horse meat scandal has seen butcher's chalkboards across the UK sing out loud with every horse meat pun imaginable. Aside from boosting trade, we of course want to reassure our customers of the full traceability of all our meat to high welfare farms, just as our suppliers have wanted to reassure us. We are very lucky to have trust-worthy suppliers who care about the provenance and welfare of our meat, just as we are lucky to have customers with similar cares that trust us.
Yet as I think about the whole affair, the scandal raises bigger questions and issues. While for those in the trade the main scandal has been the unlicensed sale of untraceable, uncertified-edible meat it seems that for the general public it is the utter shock that they have been eating a horse, an animal they imagined they could not and would never eat. While I have no desire to eat horse meat myself, this troubles me. Does a cow or pig have less rights to not be eaten than a horse? I have spent my whole life involved in the traditional meat trade through my family, and with knowledge of the industry I feel able to make an informed decision to eat meat.
I count myself lucky... When meat is processed into different shapes and packaged in bright plastic wrappers with a picture of a ready-made meal on the front, how are people able to make that decision? When the connection between food and animal is removed, any interest in the production of that food is inevitably lost. The solution? Acknowledgement of the fact we are using animals for meat is crucial... If this makes a few more vegetarians in the world then at least the meat eaters that are left are informed meat eaters. From there we can then seek knowledge of where our meat comes from. Hopefully this will enable consumers to buy meat depending on its welfare, provenance and quality and put an end to the illegitimate and harmful trading the UK has experienced.