suppliers abroad up to the strict Swiss standards by 2020." CBC News reported on March 10, 2013, that horse meat was also popular among some segments of Toronto's population. Mexico , Mexico was the second-largest producer of horse meat in the world. By 2009, it became the largest producer of horse meat in the world. It is only exported as it is not used or consumed in Mexico. United States Horse meat is generally not eaten in the United States, and is banned in many states across the country. It holds a taboo in American culture very similar to the one found in the United Kingdom. All horse meat produced in the United States since the 1960s (until the last quarter of 2007) was intended solely for export abroad, primarily to the European Union. However, a thriving horse exportation business is going on in several states, including Texas, primarily exporting horses to slaughterhouses in either Canada or Mexico. Restriction of human consumption of horse meat in the U.S. has generally involved legislation at local, state, and federal levels. Several states have enacted legislation either prohibiting the sale of horse meat or banning altogether the slaughter of horses. California Proposition 6 (1998) was passed by state voters, outlawing the possession, transfer, reception, or holding any horse, pony, burro, or mule by a person who is aware that it will be used for human consumption, and making the slaughter of horses or the sale of horse meat for human consumption a misdemeanor offense. In 2007, the Illinois General Assembly enacted Public Act 95-02, amending Chapter 225, Section 635 of the state's compiled statutes to prohibit both the act of slaughtering equines for human consumption and the trade of any horse meat similarly to Texas Agriculture Code's Chapter 149. Other states banning horse slaughter or the sale of horse meat include New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. In addition, several other states introduced legislation to outlaw the practice over the years, such as Florida, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and New York. At the federal level, since 2001, several bills have been regularly introduced in both the House and Senate to ban horse slaughter throughout the country without success. However, a budgetary provision banning the use of federal funds to carry out mandatory inspections at horse slaughter plants (necessary to allow interstate sale and exports of horse meat) has also been in place since 2007. This