A vegetarian friend of mine brought to my attention the fact that California recently banned the sale and production of foie gras–not the cruel practice of gavage, but the end product.
I feel that’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I told my friend I felt this was not a victory for animal rights, but was instead a lose-lose situation. If the welfare of the animals is really the chief concern of animal rights activists, then real victory would be not just eliminating gavage torture facilities, but creating “Garden of Eden” goose paradises like Eduardo Sousa’s farm. Likewise, victory for fans of foie gras would be not just defeating this ban, but pushing the inferior, gavage-produced foie gras off the market in favor of the superior, naturally fed foie gras. Rather than banning the product, California could have regulated the production. Instead, extremism conquers, prohibition rules, and everybody loses–not least of all, the geese.
The video below explains this natural method of producing foie gras from happy geese.
