If there were ever a racist story hidden in plain sight, this is it.

So, let me be brutally honest here, if how an animal or poultry is killed matters to you ethically, then so be it. My question though, is, how do you know?

In this country food is labelled; therefore we can choose, but what happens when you go abroad? Do we even think about it, or do we leave our ethics at home?

Several years ago, in a little town in southern France, I happened to be sitting in a car outside a poultry market where live poultry was being sold. You can imagine my thoughts as men would appear coming out of the building carrying these live birds; then they would slit their throats there and then on the pavement and carry them off. As more than one bird was killed I presumed they would end up in a restaurant.

Do we question how the French kill their meat and poultry out in the country…..No! Would we tie their ways to a religion? No!

If you have travelled to any African or Eastern country, you will have eaten either Halal or Kosher meat and never given it a thought. So why are the press making such a big deal out of this story? Military personnel will still have a choice.

Every story seems to be tainted with a racist theme with the intention of winding people up. Our choices should be guided by our own values, not by racism.

Let us also remember that the word ‘ethics’ comes from ‘ethos’, which means ‘custom’. Sometimes we tend to use the word as some kind of higher moral ground where there is none!

If we make choices according to ethics or morality, then those choices should remain in our DNA wherever we travel in the world, not just be dropped or forgotten about for convenience!