NJ Ban on Foie Gras Proposed

In Foie Gras on the Legislative Plate in today’s New York Times, Dan Mitchell reports that Michael J. Panter, a New Jersey legislator, has joined other compassionate legislators in proposing a ban on the force feeding of ducks to make foie gras.

Kudos to Assemblyman Panter. Please contact him and thank him, particularly if you’re in his district (12)

This article is in the Business section, so we were eventually going to come around to some kind of economic reason why foie gras shouldn’t be banned. BINGO. The company "that started the fresh foie gras revolution in the United States two decades ago," D’Artagnan, is located in New Jersey. Evidently, D’Artagnan’s practices aren’t as cruel as the typical foie gras production facility, with the ramming of the pipe down the throat of the goose or duck, and maybe that’s true. But the animals are still force fed.

Here is my Gray Matter, that Anthony Bourdain, whom I find most unlikable, raises: If in fact the D’Artagnan’s geese have a "pampered life," it is far better than "the horrifying and vastly more widespread practice of raising battery chickens." Mitchell writes:

Battery chickens are raised in a factorylike setting, stuffed into cages, and are induced through artificial lighting to produce as many eggs as they can before they are slaughtered once their egg production levels off — usually around 18 months. There’s no law against that.

I wonder why we go after a delicacy like foie gras, even banning it, yet veal continues to be on the menu, and eggs and chicken, which are in my opinion just as cruelly produced, are for some reason under the radar.

For a most dispassionate and informative explanation of why eggs and chicken should be dropped from your diet way before beef, read Meat Market, by Erik Marcus.

And for more on the foie gras discussion, listen to Erik Marcus’ podcast from October 6, where yours truly, Animal Person, gives her two cents on how NOT to deal with a waiter who wants you to order foie gras.