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Another Day, Another Ban
A councillor in York has tabled a vote to ban the sale of foie gras in the English city's restaurants.
Paul Blanchard (Labour - of course) describes the production of foie gras, which involves force-feeding grain to ducks and geese, as "torture."
The vote, the Independent reports, is expected to split the council. Greens are backing Blanchard's proposal to "do as much as reasonably possible to discourage or prohibit the sale of foie gras within the authority area", which is also supported by a pressure group called Compassion In World Farming.
Note that Blanchard's measure wouldn't directly ban the delicacy. Discouragement could mean posters of suffering geese going up on city property, rather than an across-the-board ban on the consumption or sale of foie gras. He himself admits that there are better and more important issues to spend council time on, but adds "there are greater wrongs in the world should not require us to turn a blind eye to other cruelties when they are exposed."
Foie gras is one of France's most prized delicacies: Production methods, from the South-West to Alsace (where it is often seasoned with black truffles) is jealously protected, and legislation is in place to cover both quality and terroir - the French term for provenance. A glass of sweet Sauternes wine with a slice of foie gras is one of the country's culinary glories.
Many farmers argue that the production of foie gras is no more cruel than any other form of farming. Indeed, one might wonder why so much attention - not only in Britain, but in US cities such as Chicago - is focussed on this expensive delicacy, when the production of battery-farmed hens seems equally cruel. The halal slaughter of animals has been described as cruel by some groups too - though its advocates claim it is less cruel than western methods.
But foie gras is a pleasure of the well-off, believed to be a manifestation of the callous decadence of the rich. It's fair game for a ban, it seems.
