The Foie Gras Fight: Animal Cruelty or Animal Rights Propaganda?

Chicago tried banning it. Now California wants to do the same. But what's so controversial about foie gras, the fattened liver of a duck or goose that many diners consider a delicacy?

"Foie gras is universally cruel," says animal rights activist and founder of the Animal Protection and Rescue League Bryan Pease.

Pease led the fight against foie gras in California, which often got ugly and scary, but he feels that it was all worth it now that the ban on the production of the food product will go into effect this summer.

"This isn't a product that anyone thinks should be consumed, really," says Pease, "except for a small group of chefs and promoters."

Mark Pastore, owner of Incanto restaurant in San Francsico, believes that animal activists, who have threatened him and Incanto's chef Chris Cosentino, bullied their way into a legislative victory through intimidation and inflated rhetoric.

"I believe that the only way to deal with bullying tactics is to stand up to them," says Pastore, who started serving foie gras after his fellow chef had acid thrown on his car and received a threatening video of his family and notes reading "stop or be stopped" from anti-foie gras activists.

So is the process of force-feeding ducks to produce foie gras cruel, as Pease alleges? Not so, says lawyer and director of Keep Food Legal Baylen Linnekin.

"Foie gras is not the result of cruel practice," says Linnekin. "It's a bird that can digest or can swallow a fish whole--a large fish." He also points out that ducks and geese are migratory birds that gorge themselves on food in nature before a winter migration, which is how foie gras, a dish dating back to ancient Egypt, came about in the first place.

The animal activists seem have won the California foie gras fight for now, but Linnekin says that in the wake of the overturned Chicago ban, he's still optimistic about the future of food freedom.

"Ultimately, choice trumps," says Linnekin. "It should, and it does. Individual rights are the most important things we have as Americans."

Written and produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Christopher Sharif Matar and Zach Weissmueller.

Approximately 6 minutes.

Scroll down for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic updates when new material goes live.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Reason Magazine
• Zach Weissmueller
• Nick Gillespie
• Sharif Matar
• libertarian
• foie gras
• food freedom
• animal cruelty
• veganism
• vegetarian agenda
• Brian Pease
• Keep Food Legal
• Mark Pastore
• Chris Cosentino
• Roland Passot
• Wolfgang Puck

[djbethell]

/watch?v=BAzrSl0ztsQ

[djbethell]

The people who deny this do so for three reasons; they don't want to believe it, they are soulless narcissists or they are getting big bucks from this disgusting industry.

[djbethell]

@brettmberry619 Shame on you.

[brettmberry619]

These animal rights activists do not ever want to stop till everyone is vegan. They are a cancer.

[boody19]

isn't Egyptian civilizations the best

[Avidcomp]

It should be noted that the poor health conditions that will affect the goose through this feeding will bring on suffering in the animal in it's later years...however, the geese are slaughtered well before they reach this age and so they do not suffer this affect during their life. On a responsible farm after feeding you will see the geese run around afterwards behaving normally and showing no signs of stress. The key is responsible farming not banning farms.

[LearningAsIGo80]

Reason tv is for psychopathic libertarians who worship Ayn Rand. Oh geez that isn't selfish and not cruel enough for me. Make them suffer more and if you don't then you are infringing on my freedom to torture.

[mrcoffey]

@pandaya News to me as well. The way it was explained to me is that gorillas are opportunistic, meaning if they come across carrion or an abandoned kill, they'll eat them some meat. As far as I know, they don't hunt.Chimps, on the other hand, have been observed killing and eating animals, which I find creepy, for some reason. The word "omnivore" doesn't mean "MUST eat meat", it just refers to animals that are ABLE to eat meat, which all primates are.

[ICANSEEMATUREVIDSNOW]

@pandaya they slay their own kin and eat eachother.

[pandaya]

Yes, they go on about ducks being waterfowl and blah blah, but all the ducks on foie gras factory farms never see any ponds, lakes or water, let alone get any fish to swallow! Funny how myopic people become when making a buck underpins their outlook.