Foie Gras Ban/the Ethics of Foie Gras

[savvysearch]

i've pretty much boycotted Whole Foods because of this issue. As if the lobster issue wasn't enough.

Edited July 9, 2006 by savvysearch (log)

[edsel]

Regarding the idea of boycotting Whole Foods, I really don't care if they decide to not sell foie gras or live lobsters. Sure, their reasoning may be faulty, and maybe they're just pandering to a certain market segment (whatever), but here's the deal-breaker for me: They didn't simply chose to avoid foie gras in their own business. After all, that's their right. No, they decided to strong-arm one of their distributors into not doing business with a foie gras purveyor. Now they're being sued. Here's a Maureen Dowd column in the NYT that explains the situation.

In the lawsuit, Sonoma Foie Gras is charging Whole Foods with "intentional interference with contract." According to the complaint, filed in January, Whole Foods told Grimaud Farms last fall to stop processing and distributing Sonoma's ducks and foie gras or the grocer would no longer do business with the company. Grimaud, which sells ducks to Whole Foods, will terminate its contract with Sonoma at the end of this month.

"We have a brighter future with Whole Foods than with the foie gras business," said Jim Galle, vice president of Grimaud Farms. "We are walking away from a great dollar value, but in the long term I think a better business decision."

Sonoma Foie Gras says that it has been unable to find another processor and that it might have to shut down. It is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. The case will begin on Friday, when a motion to dismiss will be heard.

Whole Foods declined to comment on the lawsuit, but Kate Lowery, a company spokeswoman, confirmed its ultimatum to Grimaud.

Whole Foods seems to be addressing some of the criticism it's coming under, the less-than-sustainable practice of shipping food over huge distances in particular. The recent announcement of a new initiative to increase purchases from local suppliers is a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, the Grimaud Farms action trumps all of that. I'm not sure what they could do at this point to win back my business.

[Megan Blocker]

i've pretty much boycotted Whole Foods because of this issue. As if the lobster issue wasn't enough.

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The fact that they're totally overpriced helps, too.

[Ruth]

I have come to the conclusion that a boycott of Whole Foods is definitely in order

[petite tête de chou]

So..boycott Whole Foods *in addition* to Tyson and the like, right? Where do you folks intend to get your meats?

[Megan Blocker]

So..boycott Whole Foods *in addition* to Tyson and the like, right? Where do you folks intend to get your meats?

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Thus far, I've had no problem finding meat at Schaller and Weber, Eli's, Citarella, or Fresh Direct. Of course, those are all close to my apartment, as opposed to Whole Foods, which is not.

[johnder]

So..boycott Whole Foods *in addition* to Tyson and the like, right? Where do you folks intend to get your meats?

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I get almost all my meats either from the famers market on the weekend or if I am in a pinch I will get it from Ottomanelli butchers. While I do end up paying a premium for the meat at the famers market, I am fine with that as I know exactly where my meat is coming from and how it was raised and actually talking to the farmers and hearing about their product. I get my chickens, pork and lamb all from the various farmers and usually over purchases to freeze so I always have some on hand. I can't remember the last time I purchased a Purdue or Tyson chicken.

[Jake]

Hey guys, let's remember the topic is about the Foie Gras Ban, not WF boycotts etc....

Thank you.

[Chris Amirault]

As the points being made here are either repetitive, off-topic, or personal in nature, we're closing this topic.

[azzar]

The animal rights group PETA has stepped up its attack on foie gras with this message from the actress Kate Winslet.

The mainstream media are comparing it with the celebrity campaign against bluefin, but of course the analogy is way out. Geese are not endangered, to start with.

The threat to geese, ducks and foie gras lovers alike is severe. The fact is that these increasingly shrill Ban Foie Gras campaigns (just have a look at Sir Roger Moore!) will just push more production to China, where most of the big French foie gras producers already have facilities. And over there it's not a case of traditional Gascon farmers lovingly fattening their goose - it's full on conveyor belt mechanisation, and not much interest in standards or welfare.

So if you care about traditional foie gras and about the welfare of ducks and geese (not to forget your right to make your own decisions about the morality of animal-derived foods), you'd better get busy...

Here's the Save Foie Gras Facebook site - signing up could make a difference. Here's a link to my piece in today's Times(UK).

Forgive if I've posted this in the wrong place...?

[ethermion]

100% agree with you.

It is the same kind of tree hugging fools that prevent me from eating cheval here in the US. We can slaughter horses for export, we can slaughter them for dog food, but not for my dinner table. Foo!

And the same foolery means that my county seems to have more deer than people. Does not matter to them that venison is tasty healthy food, yet dangerous when you hit the stupid creatures with your car, which I have done on three occasions so far.

What next? If you drive through the rolling hills of Virginia, you will notice farms with collections of what look to be large dog houses. They are raising veal. Oops, it seems that they are starting to ban that too.

I'm hungry. I want to eat. What could be more inhumane than eating a creature? Or will that be banned too?

[Moopheus]

On my list of things to worry about, ridiculous luxury goods for the overprivileged ranks as a pretty low priority.

[Dakki]

One man's ridiculous luxury good for the overprivileged is another man's invaluable culinary tradition. Do you feel the same about artisan bread?

As for PETA, I don't even like foie gras (or veal) and I find this ridiculous.

[LuckyGirl]

"So if you care about traditional foie gras and about the welfare of ducks and geese (not to forget your right to make your own decisions about the morality of animal-derived foods), you'd better get busy..."

"Traditional" foie would be a seasonal product. Using liver from ducks and geese that fatten themselves by gorging on their own in preparation for winter is traditional.

Gavage is not traditional (or natural) and in my eyes not much more desirable than what it seems you fear about the potential for factory foieing as more production potentially moves to China.

I'm all for "traditional" foie.

[Dakki]

"So if you care about traditional foie gras and about the welfare of ducks and geese (not to forget your right to make your own decisions about the morality of animal-derived foods), you'd better get busy..."

"Traditional" foie would be a seasonal product. Using liver from ducks and geese that fatten themselves by gorging on their own in preparation for winter is traditional.

Gavage is not traditional (or natural) and in my eyes not much more desirable than what it seems you fear about the potential for factory foieing as more production potentially moves to China.

I'm all for "traditional" foie.

Wikipedia tells me that

"In 1570, Bartolomeo Scappi, chef de cuisine to Pope Pius V, published his cookbook Opera, wherein he describes that "the liver of [a] domestic goose raised by the Jews is of extreme size and weighs [between] two and three pounds."

I think 440 years is plenty to establish a tradition. Or are you just confusing "traditional" with "natural"?

[Moopheus]

Do you feel the same about artisan bread?

I guess it depends on what you mean by "artisan," which is a word that gets thrown around very loosely these days. I bake my own bread, but I wouldn't call it artisan. It's just bread. Decent fresh bread doesn't have to be an expensive luxury item; it wasn't before factory-made bread took over the market. Bread doesn't have to be the most perfectest bread lovingly produced by master bakers, and it doesn't have to be cheap crap either. It can be just bread.

[jk1002]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh_wJnQmETE

The other site .... Now not all ducks are raised like that and that is where I sort of agree with Miss Winslet

[sunbeam]

I'm assuming for some reason the Guardian and Observer turned your piece down?

:-)

Yes let's tackle the factory chicken farmers first, oh no hang on we can't do that because working class people eat those, let's focus on what we see as a 'posh' persons food instead.

There's a lot of hypocrisy in food. Leave the French foie gras farmers alone I say. It's not as if they are some giant conglomerate, just a few old men smelling like badgers living harmless lives in the depths of the French countryside occasionally shooting things in between huge meals

S

[dougal]

There's something appropriately illogical about asserting that banning a product (and its importation) would lead to its production going offshore, to unregulated China.

Almost as illogical as suggesting that 'artisan' bread is a comparable product of cruelty.

The "shrill" nonsense seems to be from the consumers of foie gras.

Personally, I'll continue to quietly avoid foie gras, crate-raised veal, and battery-farmed eggs and poultry.

Make no mistake, I'll continue to enjoy meat from sources where the animals are well-treated.

While continuing to avoid foods where an animal suffers throughout its life, to give a few minutes pleasure to its consumer.

But I am not campaigning on the subject.

[daves]

Some people are just uncomfortable with our natural omnivore diet, and they are working hard to change it. The strategy employs class warfare since, for most people, "ridiculous luxury goods for the overprivileged ranks as a pretty low priority" for them. So they stand passively by while others have their rights and freedoms limited.

If that is effective, you can pretty much guarantee that bigger game will be hunted (so to speak), and eventually you're ability to eat anything more complex than a blade of grass will be severely limited.

So just keep thinking that "ridiculous luxury goods for the overprivileged ranks as a pretty low priority" doesn't affect you in the least...

[Indirect Heat]

Meh, by African standards, ground beef is a "ridiculous luxury good for the overprivileged". It's all relative. I count myself as pretty solidly in the middle class in America. I drive a 13 year old car. I rent my house. And yet, once a year I treat myself to a dish with foie gras in it (pumpkin soup). Foie gras is a luxury good. So is a dry-aged steak. But for the overprivileged?

Anyway, if anyone can point me towards a *real* petition that's supportive of American foie producers, I'd be delighted to sign.

[Mallet]

This is the first time I've heard of french producers having foie gras production facilities in China. If that move is associated with a decline in animal care standards/welfare (that is admittedly debatable), then to me that completely undercuts the vast majority of pro foie gras arguments. I think many foie gras consumers sustain themselves on the belief that foie gras ducks/geese have it better than their battery-farmed counterparts. Foie gras producers benefit from that belief, and now seem to be abusing it. To me that is a MAJOR breach of trust, and deserves some form of retaliation (of course here I mean boycott, not violence). To be clear: the practices should be outlawed, not the product.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Mallet (log)

[ellevan]

On my list of things to worry about, ridiculous luxury goods for the overprivileged ranks as a pretty low priority.

I agree with this statement!

[paulraphael]

My general sense is that the "ridiculous luxury goods" sentiment is exactly what peta's tapping into. As with most farming operations, there are probably good, humane foie farms and piss poor / cruel ones. But such distinctions are uninteresting to a group that's interested in raising outrage to strengthen its support.

If it weren't for the unsympathetic luxury goods factor, peta would be going after run of the mill chicken operations. Purdue tortures more birds every five minutes than all the foie farmers in the country lay their hands on in a year.

But it it would be harder to get the the populace in an uproar over their own eating habits instead of the habits of the "overprivileged.'

Edited April 22, 2010 by paulraphael (log)

[Florida]

Some people are just uncomfortable with our natural omnivore diet, and they are working hard to change it. The strategy employs class warfare since, for most people, "ridiculous luxury goods for the overprivileged ranks as a pretty low priority" for them. So they stand passively by while others have their rights and freedoms limited.

If that is effective, you can pretty much guarantee that bigger game will be hunted (so to speak), and eventually you're ability to eat anything more complex than a blade of grass will be severely limited.

So just keep thinking that "ridiculous luxury goods for the overprivileged ranks as a pretty low priority" doesn't affect you in the least...

Ah, the classic "slippery slope" argument is a false argument. Also unaware of any "right" to eat foie gras, which would be yet another false argument.

At least I found a great deal of ironic humor in the notion that forcing a tube down a goose's throat and force-feeding it is part of "our natural omnivore diet."