Corporate food producers have to report increased profits to Wall Street every quarter. They realize people can only eat so much. Since the only way to increase profits is to increase consumption, they'd rather have you eating THEIR products instead of foie gras. They've been effectively lobbying legislatures and regulatory agencies for years under many guises in an effort to choke out existing and emerging competitiors. [See Marion's Nestle's book "Food Politics."] Foie gras is a food that has a high profit margin and can keep a small farm alive; this ban will put existing and future small farms out of business permanently - which means fewer players in the overall food marketplace.
As a "wannabe" cheesemaker, I can say that the same is happening with artisan and raw milk cheeses -- the regulations are getting so complex and expensive that only Kraft and Sargento will be able to compete. As an example, look at what happened to Estrella Farm in Washington State (along with many other small cheesemakers that have closed there recently). Corporate agriculture is only too happy for this to occur. They are quite savvy to choke new businesses out before they can gain a foothold -- and regulations are a way to do this.
The more regulations government puts in place restricting food production to all but a few select items, the less likely it is that future competitors will emerge. Our governments are slowly handing our food supply over to corporations. That said, I am not anti-government (in fact, I work for the government) -- but we need smart regulations that favor both large and small producers.
Edited by bigkoiguy, 24 April 2012 - 05:30 PM.
