I wish the world would be one giant PolyFace Farm. I wish all of it would be a lot more humane, natural and in balance, a la Joel Salatin. But Puck and Trotter and all the other anti-foie agent provocateurs need to grasp that ANY protein they cook has a rough death behind it and stop being so selectively hypocritical.

The kind of “cruelty” that the anti-foie faction is screaming about is non-existent, in comparison to, say, veal calves spending their lives in crates (Britain stopped that practice 16 years ago, without detriment to the tenderness of the veal – we haven’t), or battery hens caged in their own shit, sometimes with their beaks removed (yes, you heard me) to prevent pecking themselves to bits out of the stress of confinement, or, yes, the feedlots and CAFOs. Remember the Smithfield pigs?

So, yes, I drink organic milk from pastured cows (not Horizon Organics), eat cage-free, cruelty free eggs, gave up veal (a real hardship for an Italian), and have been horrified enough to foreswear meat from the supermarket – between the Smithfield story and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I just couldn’t face the Stop n’ Shop anymore.

So, to me, based on everything I’ve seen, the ducks and geese have a FABULOUS quality of life, and Puck and Trotter really need to look into their souls and ask themselves where their last haunch of beef came from, not assailing an easy target like foie, which is basically a luxury item. That beautiful pork loin they have on the menu probably came from a long-suffering pig in one of those horrible “gestation” cages, in an airless, fetid CAFO not unlike Smithfield’s. Basically, I feel they need to examine the provenance of ALL of their ingredients, and insist on cruelty-free ingredients from their purveyors – as we should be, too.

I just want to point out that foie gras in the US is generally produced by the Mulard duck, which is a sterile hybrid between a Muscovy and a Pekin (the typical “domestic duck” which who knows how many centuries ago was bred from Mallards by the Chinese). The Muscovy is a non-migratory species, and for what it’s worth some wild populations of Mallards are migratory while others are not. Thus the idea that what occurs in American foie gras production is merely a naturally occurring physiologic adaptation of a migratory bird is a myth (you don’t make this claim in your post, but it is a commonly cited argument among the pro-foie contingent). In truth, the ducks used for foie gras couldn’t exist in the wild, and less than half of their genetic makeup would predispose them towards migratory adaptation.

Another logical flaw in the argument that migratory birds gorge themselves anyways is that if this were “good enough” we could just offer them big piles of food like a permanent all-you-can-eat buffet rather than having to tube feed them. However, migratory birds’ livers expand to only 2x their normal size while the foie ducks have livers up to 10x normal. We are clearly pushing them much farther than any point which could be deemed natural.

Also, Puck’s “publicity stunt” contains 9 points, of which the foie gras ban is only one. He’s also avoiding battery caged hens, pig gestations crates, veal crates, etc. Plus Smithfield (and this is by no means an endorsement of the company) has also decided to phase out gestation crates (over the course of a decade!). I’m not sure which animal rights lobby finally succeeded in breaking through for that one, since none of the usual suspects (PETA, Farm Sanctuary, Humane Society) is claiming credit.

I know migratory birds’ livers don’t expand near as much as a duck/goose gavage-fed, but it still doesn’t seeem to be causing them any undue discomfort (the feeding OR the fatty liver.) (If every American waddling around with a liver 10x its normal size felt horrific, you can bet we’d all diet our way back down to our appropriate sizes!)

And, yes, Mulard – I was reaching for the name since it’s been almost 10 months since I read the megnuts blog, but my synapses short-circuited to “Muscovy”.

Actually, I think the outrage from readers of the Rolling Stone article and others like us might have contributed to Smithfield’s decision to do away with gestation cages – not just PETA, etc. Smithfield treats its employees almost as badly as it does its animals (no joke), and I’ve been actively e-petitioning it for a while now on labor issues, not just piggie issues. So I think being publicly excoriated by the mainstream press might have really given some impetus to Smithfield cleaning up its act – “over a decade” (!!)

Check out this link form the NYT about Burger King announcing it’s switch to cruelty-free pork and eggs…

http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/burger-king-shifts-policy-on-animals/#comment-47015

PUCK WOLFGANG!!!
…anyone who has actually BEEN TO FRANCE and SEEN ducks being prepped to become foie donors would know that the process is simply one of mimicking the duck’s own natural pre-migratory eating behavior.

Foie was originally discovered when hunters found that wild geese and ducks they caught just before the birds annual migration had naturally occuring…foie!

Some guy here on Northern CA. (probably Sonoma) is working on…get this (tee-hee-hee %^)
“consensual foie gras”.

Just the image that concept brings to mind – not to mention the plethora of dirty jokes and puns -Well, it makes me proud to say I’m from Berkeley, in the heart of the Land of Fruits and Nuts…

I just graduated from culinary school last week (Today I am a (unemployed) Pastry Chef!)and my greatest regret (besides my massive debt and my school year weight gain)is that I will no longer be able to bribe the nice man at the school’s supply loading dock for torchons of foie in exchange for chocolate truffles containing liquor.

Kosher and halal slaughter are actually not very humane. The cows must be conscious when they are killed, and they are killed with a single cut across their neck with a long knife. This severs their internal and external carotid arteries and jugular veins, which in most animals would cause very rapid loss of blood to the brain. Cows, however, have an extra blood supply to the brain which is not cut by this technique, so they remain conscious much longer. The captive bolt technique is *much* faster when done correctly (essentially like a gunshot to the head).

and thanks for bringing up ms.grandin, liz. online here > http://www.grandin.com/

I think it is precisely because people are far removed from the raising and slaughtering of farm animals that they think the difference between a humanely raised and slaughtered animal and one which was industrially farmed and poorly slaughtered is “merely academic”.

If it is, perhaps we can discuss a more humane way to kill the animal.

Or are you saying that it does not matter how an animal is raised?

The latter argument is one I have heard many times; I’m not sure how one can compare an animal living comfortably until the moment it is killed, versus a living creature enduring torturous, filthy, concentration-camp type conditions for years on end and then being killed.

As for the comment by your drunken friend, I would argue that every time a vegetarian customer refrains from handing money to a meat vendor, they are causing a financial loss to the meat industry, and handing out profits to the vegetarian industry.

The sanitized world of the mega market safely wraps our meat products in Styrofoam and cellophane and we buy that mean with happy abandon without cause for concern or need for wonder about where said meat comes from. Would we buy that meat if it was cut fresh from the carcass? Government inspection notwithstanding, the thought of dead flesh hanging in the meat locker is “gross” and “disgusting”. Our overly sensitive, pampered, and coddled sentimentalities are offended when we consider the cute little baby cow grazing in the pasture soon to become veal.

Consider this: ducks and geese have been fattened for foie gras for millenia, mankind has shot and/or put the knife to many animals over the run of history, we have been frying/braising/sauteing/grilling/stuffing meat since fire was discovered. And yet, the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west.

While mankind continues to eat meat, slaughter will continue. The alternative is to chuck a living, breathing moo-cow onto the coals.

I’d like to propose a new group: PETV, people for the ethical treatment of vegetables. I just can’t stomach the idea of people ripping a beautiful carrot from its hidey-hole in the earth. All those bags of veggies in the market make me cry for those who can no longer shed their tears…

PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals