Farewell Foie Gras?
Chicago did it earlier this year, horrifying fine dining experts everywhere. Now New York might be getting in, or out as the case may be, of the foie gras game.
I was forwarded an email from Ariane Daguin of D’Artagnan, a fine food purveyor in New Jersey, about a proposal that’s supposedly going to be introduced to the New York City Council in the next week or so.
Here’s a sampling of the email:
Your help is urgently needed BEFORE Tuesday to stop the ban of foie gras forever!
Alan Gerson, NYC downtown councilman, is introducing a ban on foie gras this week. To keep access to foie gras possible. please read the foie gras facts below and call, email, or fax your New York Councilman and all the New York State Legislators you know, to tell them to put a stop to the anti-foie gras campaign BEFORE Tuesday, November 28.
Contact your councilman today at http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/
(This site allows you to look up your personal district representatives and get their email addresses and phone numbers.)
I did a little searching and while I didn’t learn anything about a New York City ban on Foie Gras, I did discover that there is a lawsuit in state court in New York brought by animal rights activists that is seeking to halt the production of foie gras all together. According to the New York Sun:
The lawsuit, if it succeeds, could spell the end of foie gras production in America, a goal animal rights groups have long sought. The two Sullivan county farms that are defendants in the suit are the only foie gras producers in the country, other than a Northern Californian foie gras farm that may shut down under a California state law banning the industry.
The suit comes on the heels of Chicago’s recently imposed ban of the delicacy, which comes from the fattened liver of force-fed ducks and geese.
Foie gras is fattened duck or goose liver (hence why animal rights people are bucking - the animals are overfed to make the liver fatty). It’s a French delicacy that is supposed to be rich and buttery.
The birds are overfed to make their livers fatty, meaning they are force fed with a metal funnel. Their throats and crops are naturally quite expansive to accomodate large meals, but the force-feeding might cause discomfort or injury. That’s the bone of contention with animal rights activists - in Europe as well as the U.S. Wikipedia has a reasonably balanced article on the subject. I’m not taking a position here, but it is worth learning more about.