"It is the biggest food fraud of the 21st century"

Not our words, but The Guardian this morning opening yet another investigation into the horse meat scandal. Hard hitting stuff and doubtless justified.

Two governments paralysed by their own civil servants' involvement in, and tolerance of, organised crime. If they investigated properly, many of their vetocracy would finish up behind bars

Is it connected to the various animal health, superbug and zoonotic scandals covered here and on uk.business.agriculture ?

Probably not directly.

It crosses in one or two places and involves some of the same cast of characters, but the horse meat fiasco is far less serious.

What it does clearly show is that the claims to transparency in Britain and Ireland are a sham, and that organised crime runs many activities in rural Britain, led by dubious deceitful Defra: Britain's truly atrocious agriculture ministry.

The British and Irish farmer is merely the first victim of state sponsored crime.

The full lengthy and detailed Guardian article is here


...It is the biggest food fraud of the 21st century; it led to the withdrawal of tens of millions of burgers and beef products across Europe and a promise from David Cameron that everything possible would be done to get a grip on a "very shocking" crime. However, 10 months on, the details of how horse meat came to adulterate large parts of the British and Irish food chain are still being kept from the public...