What can you say about moves by animal rights activists that seek to prohibit a deluxe, albeit controversial, ingredient? This was the question that sparked a gathering of culinary students a few nights ago during the launch of a new delicacy in one of Bonifacio High Street's classy restaurant.
Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," came from the enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. Birds used for foie gras are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Two or three times every day, up to two kilograms of grain and fat are pumped into the birds' stomachs through pipes that are shoved down their throats.
This force-feeding causes the birds' livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand. The pipes sometimes puncture birds' throats, and the massive amount of food sometimes ruptures their stomachs and other internal organs.
Proponents of the move to ban the production of foie gras say it amounts to animal cruelty, but advocates are quick to point out the danger in anthropomorphizing the birds. Their liver is designed to naturally fatten in nature for migration, they say, and that unlike humans, the esophagus of water fowl is insensitive and has no gag reflex - hence the reason ducks can eat fish whole. Both sides of the issue cite studies supporting their respective causes.
Some countries though are not waiting for the debates to finish. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that foie gras production violates the country's cruelty-to-animals laws, and the practice is now banned in Israel. Germany and other European nations have prohibited the production of foie gras, and force-feeding birds is prohibited in the U.K. and in Switzerland, where foie gras packages are required to carry labels to inform consumers that the birds were force-fed. The European Union is also working to phase out the force-feeding of birds entirely in its member countries by 2020.
Many restaurants are planning foie gras specials before any policy against it is filed or takes effect as a protest and to raise awareness. Several high-profile chefs were reportedly planning to hold a foie gras dinner for free once they see a bill is submitted in Congress.
"There's a demand for it. If we, as restaurateurs, couldn't sell it, this would be a nonissue. It's not like people are fighting for kombucha," said one chef.
Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," came from the enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. Birds used for foie gras are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Two or three times every day, up to two kilograms of grain and fat are pumped into the birds' stomachs through pipes that are shoved down their throats.
This force-feeding causes the birds' livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand. The pipes sometimes puncture birds' throats, and the massive amount of food sometimes ruptures their stomachs and other internal organs.
Proponents of the move to ban the production of foie gras say it amounts to animal cruelty, but advocates are quick to point out the danger in anthropomorphizing the birds. Their liver is designed to naturally fatten in nature for migration, they say, and that unlike humans, the esophagus of water fowl is insensitive and has no gag reflex - hence the reason ducks can eat fish whole. Both sides of the issue cite studies supporting their respective causes.
Some countries though are not waiting for the debates to finish. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that foie gras production violates the country's cruelty-to-animals laws, and the practice is now banned in Israel. Germany and other European nations have prohibited the production of foie gras, and force-feeding birds is prohibited in the U.K. and in Switzerland, where foie gras packages are required to carry labels to inform consumers that the birds were force-fed. The European Union is also working to phase out the force-feeding of birds entirely in its member countries by 2020.
Many restaurants are planning foie gras specials before any policy against it is filed or takes effect as a protest and to raise awareness. Several high-profile chefs were reportedly planning to hold a foie gras dinner for free once they see a bill is submitted in Congress.
"There's a demand for it. If we, as restaurateurs, couldn't sell it, this would be a nonissue. It's not like people are fighting for kombucha," said one chef.
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It's shocking and very cruel! Should be banned everywhere, though many similar practices flourish in India too.
We shouldn't eat that in the first place, it's not healthy!
don't eat eat foie gras and shark's fin soup...it is cruel!