Foie Gras - the Real F-word

Foie gras (in English, fatty liver) is the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened by a process called gavage. Foie gras is a popular french delicacy. Foie gras is sold whole, or prepared as a pâté.

Ancient Egyptians perfected the gavage technique around 2500 BCE, deliberately fattening birds through force-feeding. Today, France is the largest producer and consumer of foie gras, though it is produced and consumed worldwide, including in the United States. In foie gras production, geese are confined in tiny cages that prevent movement, then force fed enormous amounts of salty corn mash. Three or more times a day, their bills are forced open, a metal pipe jammed down their throats, and their stomachs pumped full of corn mash. After four weeks, the livers have become swollen with fat globules, and enlarged 4 to 12 times their regular size. More than 10% of the geese die from ruptured stomachs. The "survivors" are slaughtered for their livers. The force feeding process damages the geese's throats so badly that they are unable to eat on their own.

PETA, Farm Sanctuary, and The Humane Society of the United States agree that foie gras production is cruel and inhumane. In 2005, the Animal Protection and Rescue League, In Defense of Animals, and PETA released a video narrated by Sir Roger Moore, showing footage taken inside three U.S. foie gras farms, and several in France. Moore says, "Through the painful force-feeding process, birds have as much as 3 pounds of food pumped into their small bodies everyday - in human terms, that's roughly 45 pounds of pasta - until they develop a disease that causes their livers to enlarge up to 10 times their normal size."

Foie gras farms are so cruel that force-feeding birds has been banned in many countries, including Israel, Switzerland, and some in the United Kingdom. In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill outlawing the production and the sale of foie gras in California. In March, 2007, Wolfgang Puck's 14 fine dining restaurants, more than 80 casual cafes, and his packaged food business stopped serving foie gras. (They have also stopped buying eggs from caged chickens, and meat from animals raised in crates.) Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, however, continues to promote foie gras in recipes, in his restaurants, and on his television shows.

Despite these legislative and private industry advances, worldwide foie gras production has increased dramatically in recent years. In France, it has doubled in the last decade. Please don't buy foie gras. Don't support chefs, restaurants or cooking magazines who use it. If it is being served at a restaurant you frequent, ask that it be removed from the menu and explain why - explain that this is not how civilized people behave. These birds would never do such a thing to us.