I consider myself to be an educated person generally. I am a pretty adventurous eater and I love food. Well I do not know how I made it this far in my life without knowing how foie gras is made. I know it as duck or goose liver which may not appeal to a lot of people. I'm very middle of the road when it comes to things generally, with a heavy lean to the liberal side. I do know about the horrible conditions that cattle and chicken are kept in by the companies that mass-produce meat. I am also informed about mass produced meat and the stress it puts on the environment. But I also think that while my family has cut back significantly on meat the last couple years for these reasons, that meat in moderation is ok if from the right sources. I'm not a card carrying PETA member but I care about the humane treatment of animals. Last night I watched a brief blurb on the ABC 7 news about a statewide ban on foie gras and was completely grossed out.
I had no idea that foie gras is the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened by force-feeding. This is a cultural food originating in France, the words foie gras translating into "fat liver." I took French in high school, apparently I was out the day they taught this! There is a foie gras farm here in California that is under fire in the news clip that I have included below. Three times a day a pound of corn is forced down the ducks' throat through a metal tube. Horrifying. And, this particular farm had many sick and dead birds, birds with livers so swollen they couldn't move and were getting eaten alive by rats.
How could you possibly ever want to eat this again after knowing how this is made? I'm not trying to change the cultural history of the French, but I do agree, in this day and age, a foie gras farm has no place in California.
