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The Fuss Over Foie Gras

  • Spence Cooper
  • May 23, 2012

Nearly eight years after a bill enacting a foie gras ban was signed, California is set to impose the nation’s first statewide ban on foie gras this July.

Despite the ban, chefs are still actively campaigning against a foie gras ban. According to the Huffington Post, a “Save Foie Gras” petition has been started, with support from chefs such as Jose Andres and Andrew Zimmern.

At the James Beard Awards on Monday, several chefs and food industry professionals were sporting “Save The Foie” buttons, provided by D’Artagnan.

However, famed California chef Wolfgang Puck recently sent a letter to selected restaurants in California urging them to join him in supporting the law, where more than 100 other restaurants in the state have stopped selling foie gras.

Foie Gras is made from fattened goose liver [correction: fattened duck or goose liver]. Alicia Graef with Care2 explains the horrendous way in which foie gras is produced:

“Foie gras production involves force-feeding restrained ducks by shoving metal pipes down their throats multiple times a day, called gavage, and pumping them full of grain, or corn and fat, which leads to acute hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver disease, which in turn leaves ducks suffering with malfunctioning livers that are ten times their normal size. The practice is considered cruel and inhumane and has already been banned in a dozen countries, while several others have a ban on force-feeding.”

The Animal Legal Defense Fund, Compassion Over Killing, the Animal Protection & Rescue League, and Farm Sanctuary are suing the USDA for violating the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA).

Bruce Friedrich, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives of Farm Sanctuary, explains the suit: “Our lawsuit is based on the fact that the PPIA dictates that diseased animal organs are supposed to be condemned by USDA inspectors, and foie gras is — by definition — a diseased organ. Thus, USDA should do its job by banning the sale of foie gras nationally.”

Graef adds that the complaint also addresses concerns about human health, citing “abnormally high levels of toxins”that accumulate in ducks and geese, along with a study published by the National Academy of Sciences about the associated risks of developing secondary amyloidosis for people with inflammatory diseases who eat foie gras, in addition to the connection to its consumption and other diseases, such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Animal Protection & Rescue League notes that behavioral evidence suggests ducks and geese experience fear, as well as acute and chronic stress from the multiple daily force feedings and the pain associated with them.

The Fuss Over Foie Gras“Force feeding causes a number of injuries: bruising or perforation of the esophagus; hemorrhaging and inflammation of the neck resulting from the repeated insertion of the pipe to the throat; and asphyxia caused by food improperly forced into the trachea.

“Wounds of the esophagus may subsequently become infected. Force feeding also results in numerous illnesses and disease, including hepatic lipidosis, bacterial and fungal infections, malnourishment, and lameness. For these reasons, mortality rates for force-feed ducks are 10 to 20 times higher than those for non-force fed ducks.”

Rick Bishop, the National Sales & Marketing Director for Hudson Valley Foie Gras, insists the USDA would not allow a diseased organ to be sold, and called the production of foie gras “a reversible, healthy process in an animal, beyond question.”

Jennifer Fearing, the California senior state director for the Humane Society of the United States, says California’s debate over foie gras was over in 2004, when the Legislature voted and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law.

“Those who care about preventing cruelty to animals should celebrate that such a long wait is coming to an end, and those who took no action to find alternatives to the abusive force-feeding practice have only themselves to blame.”

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