Prince of Wales addresses horsemeat scandal

Britain’s The Prince of Wales has blamed food production methods for the recent horsemeat scandals.

The future king of England voiced his opinions during a conference in Germany on regional food security, insisting more needs to be done to avoid such incidents happening again, describing them as ”external shocks”.

Speaking to the Langenburg Forum at Langenburg Castle in the state of Baden-Württemberg – which he was invited to by his distant relative Philipp, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg – Charles said: ”It may appear that things are well, Big global corporations may appear to be prospering out of operating on a global monocultural scale, but, as I hope you have seen, if you drill down into what is actually happening, things are not so healthy.

”Our present approach is rapidly mining resilience out of our food system and threatening to leave it ever more vulnerable to the various external shocks that are becoming more varied, extreme and frequent.”

The 64-year-old royal continued to suggest using cheaper food and substances, which earns bigger profits for the providers, decreases the values of the products and farmers who distribute supplies, forcing them ”into the ground”.

He stated: ”The aggressive search for cheaper food has been described as a ‘drive to the bottom’, which I am afraid is taking the farmers with it. They are being driven into the ground by the prices they are forced to expect for their produce and this has led to some very worrying shortcuts.

”The recent horsemeat scandals are surely just one example, revealing a disturbing situation where even the biggest retailers seem not to know where their supplies are coming from.

”It has also led to a very destructive effect on farming. We are losing farmers fast. Young people do not want to go into such an unrewarding profession.”