'SF Chronicle' Columnist Defends Foie Gras
In wake of recent foie gras debates in San Francisco, Caille Millner says, "Perhaps that's why Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the bill's sponsor, didn't call me back—what can he say, really? That the world is a better place because San Francisco's offering a pat on the back to restaurants who stop serving foie gras? That keeping foodies from having too much happiness is a positive development? That it's OK to kill the ducks for their meat, but not their liver?"
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8 Comments:
I'm not here to push vegetarianism on anyone by any stretch of the imagination. I polished off a BBQ bacon cheeseburger for dinner. But to defend foie because it brings foodies "so much happiness" is fucking arrogant, Caille Millner. Do you have any idea how that shit is made? In most cases, it's force feeding. As in "they shove a metal tube down the goose's gullet and cram corn into it until it's about to bust". I've seen this in practice and it's barbaric. It's not about killing an animal for it's meat. It's about torturing it so you can have a nifty dining experience. Enjoy your food. That's fine. But don't be an asshole about it.
Here's a question. If someone discovered that veal tasted better if the calf in question received months of continuous painful electric shock before it was butchered, would you line up, fork and knife in hand, for a taste of this new food sensation? Are you that fucking self centered?
Cupajo at 10:19PM on 04/15/09
Word to that dude's comment. Ms. Millner misses the point entirely, its the torture while they're alive, not the killing, with which people take issue.
Grrrrr
nikonratm at 10:51PM on 04/15/09
What's with the Canada goose icon? No one makes foie with wild geese (although I've eaten a few wild goose livers almost that fatty), and domestics don't look like that. No biggie, but I'm just sayin'...
HunterAnglerGardenerCook at 11:02PM on 04/15/09
You got me, HAGC. I'll change it to a duck.
Adam Kuban at 11:04PM on 04/15/09
Find me a humane way to make foie gras and I'll be fine with it, especially if it means using more of the dead goose/duck.
piccola at 11:07PM on 04/15/09
Go read Jeffrey Steingarten's excellent article before you toss around ignorant words like "gag" when talking about foie gras.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061020222119/http://www.mensvogue.com/food/articles/2006/08/21/foie_gras?currentPage=1
peekpoke at 12:18PM on 04/16/09
There are three foie gras farms in the United States - one in California, and two in New york. If you buy your foie gras from the US, the chances that you're getting foie gras from a humanely raised duck that lived a happy life are very high, especially if you buy from Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York. I think animal rights protesters need to focus more on factory farms that not only treat animals horribly, but pollute the environment with waste and abuse their employees.
Also, foie gras has garnered a lot of interest from both chefs, who have a personal stake in the quality and origin of their food, and journalists who want to see what's going on. Foie gras protesters say it's inhumane, it's torture, etc. However, ducks aren't humans and that being said, their bodies and digestive systems are built very differently. If we had tubes put down our throat, yes, we'd choke and have difficulty breathing. However, ducks don't have gag reflexes so they can't choke. Additionally, ducks' wind pipes open on their tongue, not their throat, so they can breathe.
Here is some additional information:
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/07/05/liver-let-die
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-02-18/news/is-foie-gras-torture/
ElissaLovesToEat at 1:02PM on 04/16/09
piccola, not sure if this is actually what you meant, but they do not just use the liver and throw out the rest. In fact, the breast of fat ducks are so prized that they have their own special name too "magret du canard". Not sure what happens to bills or feathers, but it shouldn't be any worse than other duck farming.
But if you are looking for the friendliest of foie, here is Dan Barber talking about it.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html
On an episode of The F Word, Gordon Ramsay had a blind taste test of that versus conventional foie gras and easily identified the conventional as hte better tasting of the two, but still it is nice to know people are trying different things.
drastic at 3:32PM on 04/16/09