There has been quite a bit of activity in Atlanta recently about the ethics around eating foie gras, including demonstrations by animal rights organisations outside restaurants that serve it. So here's my opinion on foie gras and in particular a commentary on a few points raised by a local restaurateur in defense of his decision to keep foie gras on the menu. I am responding to these points because I believe that they are representative of the viewpoint of many who are attempting to support the consumption of foie gras whilst being mindful of animal welfare: and in view of Mr Hopkins commitment to organisations which promote local and responsibly farmed food I believe animal welfare is one of his concerns.What is foie gras - literally translated means 'fatty liver' and more specifically a goose or duck liver that has been fattened due to force-feeding of the bird, a process known as gavage.
Restaurant owner and chef Linton Hopkins was one of the targets for the protestors and consequently he defended his decision to serve foie gras in a public statement Restaurant Eugene - in defense of foie gras Below are the points from his statement that I wish to discuss.
Mr Hopkins cites a quotation from his supplier which says "The first evidence of foie gras is found in ancient Egyptian history, some 45 centuries ago". Foie gras and the raising method of gavage were part of the ancient Egyptian culture (2500 B.C.), however, just because something has been practiced for centuries doesn't make it right: a fallacious argument.
Second Mr Hopkins goes on to say - "We recognize that an animal sacrifices its life in order for us to eat which is why our kitchens are dedicated to using every possible part of the animal so that nothing goes to waste". Admirable ethic and one that has been practiced for centuries (up until the last fifty years or so until meat became a sterile plastic wrapped item in super market refrigerators). So on this basis does Mr Hopkins buy the whole goose and use the liver in his foie gras offerings, or does he buy the livers wholesale by the pound? It's my guess that he buys liver wholesale by the pound from his foie gras supplier (Guillermo Gonzalez from Artisan-Sonoma Foie Gras). Liver is offal, foie gras is a delicacy and is produced simply for that purpose: it's not about preventing waste, it really is about catering to gourmands. And here's the thing, the principal of using up every part of the animal so as not to waste any part of it and to be mindful of its "sacrifice" (Mr Hopkin's word) is literally about that, using every bit so that there is no waste, either for the animal, the producer, the butcher and the pocket of the consumer. My dad was a slaughter man and a butcher, and when it came to the food at home we were economically prudent. I know what it means to be resourceful when it comes to eating the offal (literally meaning the off-fall when an animal is butchered), When I was growing up we had cow heel pie, boiled and pressed cow's tongue, the lining of cows' stomach and udders (tripe and elder), sheep's kidney, to name but a few items of offal. There was nothing fancy in this, it was economical slow cooking based on the ethic of not being wasteful, and being as resourceful as possible. Foie gras does not fall under this category - today it is a designer food item and, outside of France, served in fine-dining restaurants. I know Mr Hopkins serves offal in his gastro pub Holeman and Finch presumably under his ethos of using every part of the animal, but it's my guess that this is not the motive behind his choice to serve it in Restaurant Eugene - I am guessing that Mr Hopkins is meeting a demand.
I will finish with this:
- a human liver weighs approximately 3 pounds; the average weight of an adult human is 150 pounds:
- the duck foie fras at Artisan-Sonoma farm weighs 1-2 pounds ber lobe of liver ; a duck or goose at harvest time weighs between 8 and 16 pounds.
This adds up to an extremely large duck liver that I believe can only come from intense force-feeding, which brings me to my last point of contention. The foie gras producer, Mr Gonzalez states that the birds are force-fed and that it is "non-injurious" to the bird to have a funnel inserted in its oesophagus...because its oesophagus is "pliable and expandable...and it does not have a gag reflex". Water birds do have a very different oesophagus to humans but in my opinion it is not acceptable to force-feed an animal at any time, the only exception being would be to save its life certainly not to cater to the whims of the gastronome palette. (There may be alternatives to force-feeding and THE EPICUREAN will talk about this in a later blog).
The liver produced for foie gras means that the bird's liver is bigger by 10 times its normal size, the liver at this point is already diseased and if the bird was not slaughtered would die of its condition. Again in my opinion this is not acceptable; and do we really want to be eating diseased meat?
I believe that for the most part the production of foie gras is extremely cruel, and the birds are kept in the most harrowing conditions at foie gras farms, including farms in the U.S.A. The ducks at the Artisan-Sonoma farm may be pasture raised and have a better life than most birds raised for their liver, but in my opinion any animal feeding management which forces the bird's liver to grow to around an eighth of its total body weight is inhumane and unethical. Bottom line do we really need to eat foie gras? For the most part it is an elitist delicacy, and if it were no longer served - except under the principle of using up the off-fall (offal) from butchering - would not leave us hungry.
If you are still undecided about this particular delicacy - below are some links which may help you make a decision including the website for Artisan Sonoma Foie Gras.
- THE ACTIVIST
Artisan-Sonoma Foie Gras Roger Moore's You Tube expose on Foie gras What is Foie gras Wholefoods stand on foie gras
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