California foie gras producer Tom Brock is now using a soft, rubber force-feeding tube to fatten his geeses' livers, according to Juliet Glass in today's New York Times. A Serious Eats prediction: This kinder, gentler force-feeding tube will not placate the Humane Society's anti–foie gras animal-rights activists in the slightest. It turns out that what's good for the geese is bad for the gourmand....
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The Telegraph's Sally Peck discusses a tv special in the UK that's probably unlikely to make its way across the Atlantic: A full 90 per cent of us, according to a new BBC programme, buy our meat in neatly packaged blobs at the supermarket and thus remain disconnected from many of the moral issues surrounding the raising and killing of animals for human consumption.Last night on BBC Three, journalist Richard Johnson set about remedying our ignorance of the slaughter process in Kill it, Cook it, Eat it.In the programme, a film crew has taken over a small working abattoir and installed windows onto the slaughter room so guests can view the action close-up. An adjacent kitchen-dining room, with views onto...
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The Spanish company Pateria de Sousa produces a foie gras called Ganso Iberico, which they're marketing as an ethical foie gras because they avoid "the process known as la gavage - force-feeding birds with grain by using a metal tube - by allowing geese to stock up on extra food naturally in preparation for their normal winter migration to Africa. They are slaughtered once they have fattened themselves for their expected long flight south." Ganso Iberico is only produced once a year because of migration, and is even more expensive than traditional foie gras, which costs £10 to its £16 for just 2½oz (70g). Interesting factoid thrown out in the article: "Although the production of foie gras is banned in...
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Maine lobstermen are upset with Whole Foods, not because they stopped selling lobster in their stores last year because of animal rights concerns but because they're going to start selling them again in a soon-to-open Portland store. "Lobster groups were fine with the ban until the company announced that it will change its rules for Portland after finding a New Hampshire company with a more compassionate way to bring lobsters to retailers. "The suggestion is, they know how to do it better," said Kristen Millar, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council."...
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