Serious Eats blog concludes that foie gras is not unethical

A gauntlet was thrown down Thursday by food blog Serious Eats when writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt wrote a lengthy dissertation on why -- after visiting a foie gras farm in the Hudson Valley -- foie gras is not unethical.

He tours the facility and takes pictures of the ducks in the giant sheds they live in. He isn't allowed, however, to take pictures inside the sheds where the ducks spend the final 25 days of their lives being fed by tubes that are forced down their throats in a practice known as gavage. He's told this is because they are using a new technology that they don't want their competitors to see, not because anything cruel is happening, and he's content with that answer. He remains so after watching the gavage, writing:

We walked down row after row of pens until we got to one where a worker was just about to start feeding. At La Belle, the ducks are fed three times a day for a total of up to 240 grams of their custom-designed feed. As we watched, the worker — a petit woman — climbed into the pen and sat on an overturned box. One at a time, she pulled a duck towards her and held it between her legs with its neck arched upwards. She gently squeezed the base of the duck's neck ("checking to make sure that he's finished all his food from the last feeding," says Bob), then eases a flexible plastic tube down the duck's throat. A machine whirls, a small bulge forms where the food is deposited, and the duck walks off, giving its head one shake, but otherwise seemingly unaffected.

As you might expect, the post has already generated 200 comments from people on both sides of the fence on the issue. If you read the comments it seems that -- despite appearances -- forcefully fattening a duck's liver for foie gras isn't really at the heart of the controversy. Instead, the controversy provides the perfect lens through which to examine one's feelings about meat in general, and how animals are treated while they are being raised.

If you have strong feelings about the subject, please feel free to leave a comment below.

-- Jessica Gelt

 Photo: Izzy Yanai, vice president and general manager of the farm Hudson Valley Foie Gras, at his facility in upstate New York, one of only three U.S. producers of the controversial gastronomic treat, known universally by its French name. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Studyaidsuk]

A very good post and an excellent blog. I am now a follower. Thanks, Steve @ http://www.study-aids.co.uk

Dissertations | Essays

[Iron Rich Food]

This is where the old "know your farmer" comes in. There are also other forms of liver (I know, not foie gras), but still rich, tasty, and loaded with iron and B vitamins.

[savvysearch]

Not only can foie gras be ethnical, in most farms it already IS ethical. If you go to France or either of the two foie gras farms in the US, the geese are treated well. The fact that the geese swarm the feeder every single time, tells me that not only is it not cruel, but there's no discomfort for the geese whatsoever.

The PETA contingent are simply louder, more outrageous and deceitful in order to get people on their side. If they scream and silence other voices, you can't hear the other side. That's their intention.

It's sad that people are falling for it and that farmers aren't allowed to have a voice to defend themselves.

[Susan Trout]

Force-feeding any living being for any reason other than to try to save its life is abominable.

And to think this all happens because the snobs of society LIKE their little delicacies, even if they know that the creature suffered every day of its life.

"We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant couisins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form." William Inge (1860-1954), from Outspoken Essays

I truly wonder about humanity. We continue to flounder in the dark ages. Few really seek the light!

[Concerned American]

Truthfully, it sounds horribly wrong to me. To force a bird to eat more than it needs just to eat it's liver is just totally gross and uncivilized.

I know how it feels to overeat, it's very uncomfortable and hard on the body. I am sure the ducks are feeling it 10x worse.

No, we can do without faux gras. Disgusting food.

[Dan Esposito]

Dear Sir or Madame:

From what I've seen and heard, how geese are treated for this is wrong. Please stop all forms of foie gras.

Thank you.

[john]

As Jessica Gelt says, "forcefully fattening a duck's liver for foie gras isn't really at the heart of the controversy." For in depth coverage about the controversy over foie gras in the U.S. (esp. Chicago) and France, you should read "The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight" by Mark Caro (2009).

[Laura Frisk]

The production of foie gras is a succession of cruelties from beginning to end. At a very young age, ducks and geese are crowded into pens in filthy sheds. Three times a day, workers hold them down, pry open their bills, and shove a long metal pipe all the way down their throats. Then an air-driven pump forces two to three pounds of corn mixture into them. Many of the birds die when their stomachs burst from this forced overfeeding. After four weeks of this, the survivors’ livers are melon-sized—six to 12 times the normal size.

Foie gras is nothing short of animal torture. And it is nothing more than a diseased liver. Why in the world would anyone want to swallow that?

[Colleen O'Brien, PETA]

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's article about foie gras was biased and factually inaccurate.

Every scientific review by a disinterested body has found that force-feeding is cruel to animals. The scientific consensus is so strong that foie gras' production is banned in more than a dozen countries, including Israel, whose Supreme Court considered all the scientific information on foie gras production and found that it can't be produced humanely—because force-feeding is inherently cruel.

Further, Foie gras has been denounced by literally every scientist with a history of concern regarding poultry welfare, from Canada's top poultry expert, Dr. Ian Duncan, to the United Kingdom's top poultry experts, Dr. Donald Broom and Dr. Christine Nichol. These scientists work for the poultry industries in their countries and are responsible for government agricultural policies. Dr. Nichol, a tenured poultry husbandry professor at the University of Bristol, explained that foie gras production, in all cases, "causes unacceptable suffering to these animals. ... It causes pain during and as a consequence of the force feeding, feelings of malaise as the body struggles to cope with extreme nutrient imbalance, and distress due to the forceful handling. The most extreme distress is caused by loss of control of the birds' most basic homeostatic regulation mechanism as their hunger control system is over-ridden."

By neglecting both sides of the foie gras debate and by presenting his argument as definitive, Mr. Lopez-Alt has done his readers, and the animals who are tortured and killed for foie gras, a grave disservice. With the many delicious vegan pâté options that are available, no one should be paying for animal abuse.

[Christine]

Force-feeding an animal so that it's internal organs expand to a grotesque size is not humane -- no matter how "gently" a tube is forced down their throat.

This farm may have carefully orchestrated this "inspection" to put their best face forward, but don't kid yourself. There is an ugly side to what they are doing -- which is what they didn't want the author to see. Additionally, most farms are not the "gold standard" and have no qualms about cutting corners or openly abusing these birds. It seems whenever there is profit involved, animals in the food chain are abused.

Why not leave the ducks alone and find another appetizer? I've eaten Foi Gras a number of times (before I knew where it came from) and honestly -- even the most expensive variety is not that great.

[BlueMama]

Oh yes, the ducks are totally happy with the "treatment". Won't you enjoy being gently force fed by a petite woman? What a pastoral way of life. I am sure they are also slaughtered by petite women to the sound of classical music, not minding that at all.

[Jodi Minion, PETA]

As a wildlife biologist, I take issue with several of the conclusions made by Serious Eats about the well-being of ducks on foie gras farms.

Free-roaming ducks eat mainly grasses, wild grains, insects, and tiny fish, amphibians, and snakes. They forage and digest food slowly. Ducks don’t eat a cup of corn mush or more all at once. They are not equipped to metabolize fat at such a high rate, as evidenced by how quickly it metabolizes in the liver, thus causing birds to quickly develop life-threatening diseases, including obesity and fatty liver disease. Force-feeding is also linked to gastrointestinal diseases and blockages, spleen and blood disorders, and respiratory illnesses.

In addition, routinely shoving a plastic or metal feeding tube into a duck’s esophagus causes scratches, lacerations, and bruising (sometimes severe); bacteria fester in these areas and can cause painful, debilitating infections.

Ducks are water birds. Confining them to crowded, dusty warehouses with no access to a body of water, grass, fresh air, or even sunlight prevents them from engaging in even the most basic natural behaviors, such as swimming, bathing, and preening their feathers.

The birds at the farm visited by Serious Eats aren’t living the high life. The actions described by the author indicate distress (fleeing into corners, crowding together, and vocalizing loudly). The birds’ feathers are in disarray, damaged, and dirty. The ducks are standing on concrete, which can cause painful sores on feet that are designed for paddling and walking on grass and mud. The birds in the photos list forward and to the side, indicating that they are ill and/or depressed.

As the author points out, the farm he visited is one of the “better” ones. Many are far, far worse. A recent investigation of foie gras farms in France (which export foie gras all over the world), revealed that ducks are confined to cramped, filthy cages barely larger than the ducks’ bodies. (See video footage here: http://www.peta.org.uk/features/sir-roger-moore-narrates-new-video/.)

[Bryan]

Labelle also recently settled a class action for failure to pay minimum wage or overtime, "abysmal working conditions," and "charging its workers an astronomical fee for transportation from Mexico to the foie gras plant, and by housing the workers in a severely dilapidated labor camp." The case is Iglesias-Mendoza v. LaBelle Farm, Inc., Southern District of New York case number 06CIV1756.

[iron rich foods]

Red meat is high on iron and it comes in the heme form you body most easily absorbs; typically 15% to 35% of heme iron is absorbed by your body. Organ meats are the best sources of iron within the meat category and of these liver is probably the most popular so we've included it the list since we don't know too many people who'll eat spleen or lungs we've excluded these kinds of organs. If you like liver then go for goose liver expensive, but very nice! or at least opt for pork liver instead of beef liver. When you opt for red meat in your diet add some less standard options like Emu, Ostrich or Duck instead of beef.
iron rich foods