{news} Say no to Bush's faux pas, and foie gras, too

[David Bedell]

I wasn't at the state meeting last week so didn't hear Diana Urban's 
presentation.  I understand her stance on ending the Iraq War was not strong 
enough to win much support from Greens; however, I was impressed by the 
following article which shows her dedication to non-violence.  How many of 
our candidates have included animal cruelty or animal rights in their 
campaign platforms?


http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-foiegras.artjul25,0,4495992.story

Cruelty Claims May Foil Foie Gras

By WILLIAM WEIR
Courant Staff Writer

July 25 2006

In the kitchen of Grants in West Hartford Center, chef Eric Sass holds up a 
couple of pounds of foie gras. Before it gets fancied up for customers, this 
delicacy isn't much more than a plastic-wrapped shapeless lump.

It's so underwhelming that it's surprising that it would be the center of 
the latest food controversy. In fact, this shapeless lump would be banned 
from restaurants and stores in Connecticut under a bill to be offered in the 
General Assembly next year.

"The way to bring attention to this is to ban the sale," says Rep. Diana 
Urban, R-North Stonington, who plans to introduce legislation in January. "I 
know that that's going out on a limb, but what I want to do is generate 
discussion - and I'm sure we will."

By January, it may seem less of a long shot. Chicago's city council has 
already passed a ban on selling foie gras (pronounced "fwah grah"), and 
California will restrict its production starting in 2012. Regulations are 
also being considered in Philadelphia, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.

Animal-rights activists say the farms where the ducks and geese are raised 
for foie gras combine the worst elements of all mass-production animal 
farms. Those in the industry, though, contend they're being singled out 
because they don't have the political power of other meat industries.

Though it didn't gain much of a following in the United States until the 
mid-1980s, foie gras has since become a staple of French cuisine. Most of 
the chefs we spoke to said they'll serve it as long as their customers want 
it. And for now, at least, their customers want foie gras.

"We've heard from people who ask questions about it and then order it," says 
Steve Abrams, co-owner of Max Downtown. "It's doesn't seem like a problem 
for them."

Animal activists have seized upon the way ducks and geese are fed - tubes 
are forced down their throats to pump in food for 3 seconds at a time, three 
times a day.

"The question is, does the process of feeding the ducks cause unacceptable 
pain?" says Michael Ginor, co-owner of the nation's biggest foie gras 
producer, Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York. "The focus of all the 
attention has been on the actual feeding process."

Most of the foie gras in the U.S. comes from three farms - two in New York 
and one in California. Ginor's produces 250 tons a year.

Foie gras translates literally to "fatty liver" and is exactly that. Ducks 
are force-fed so that their livers grow to up to 12 times normal size. The 
imagery of the feeding process is misleading, Ginor says. Because ducks 
don't have a gag reflex like we do, this doesn't hurt them the way many 
think it would.

Bruce Friedrich, spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 
says objections go beyond feeding. Videos exist of ducks jammed into cages 
or dangling from wires. Inspections of farms routinely find ducks that are 
"dead, dying or diseased."

Everyone from the pope to the Israeli supreme court has condemned foie gras, 
Friedrich says. People who defend it have a vested interest or have never 
seen the process of making it.

"We have done undercover investigations into the production of all animal 
products, and this combines the worst elements of all of the other animal 
products," he says. "There isn't really a close second place."

Elizabeth Ciarlelli, manager of Zinc in New Haven, said she welcomes any 
discussion that causes people to "be aware of what we put in our mouths." 
The popular restaurant serves free-range chicken, supports local farms and 
avoids using endangered fish. But there's been no serious discussion about 
removing foie gras from its menu. Listed as "duck liver mousse torchon," it 
goes for $11.

Personally, she neither cares for foie gras nor the process used to make it. 
But she also recognizes that the ethics of what we choose to eat can be 
complicated. "If I loved it, would I feel that way?" she wonders.

Ginor thinks his product is being singled out for political reasons. The 
foie gras industry doesn't have much clout, and it's easier to persuade 
people to give up something they might have once or twice a year than to 
forego staples like hamburgers or chicken. "And it's something foreign and 
something most people have never heard of," he says.

Urban, who is running for the U.S. Senate as an independent petitioning 
candidate, says a pricey delicacy is the perfect place to start raising 
awareness about farming standards.

"It's a luxury product, and it is indeed incumbent upon as a society to ask, 
`Is this a product that we need if it's produced this way?'"

Oddly, Ginor says, talk about banning foie gras has been good for his 
business. People are talking about his product. And in any business, he 
says, that's half the battle. "They don't quite remember what they heard or 
what was said, but they remember it, so they try it," he says. "This year, 
revenue-wise, it'll be better than any year we've had before."

William Weir can be contacted at bweir@ courant.com.

A discussion of this story with William Weir is scheduled to be shown on New 
England Cable News each hour today between 9 a.m. and noon.

Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant