The issue for him is more than just foie gras – I recommend you visit this link to read up on all the changes he is making, including serving only sustainable seafood.

http://hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/wolfgang_puck_animal_welfare.html

This is not about making money, it’s about making an effort to do the right thing – I think it’s also called “progress”.

There is no resentment of the “elites” who love it evident in the efforts to ban it, merely a caring for the animals. As I said, if you love animals, a certain ‘disconnect’ is required to eat them. If you ever lose it, your life will change completely.

When do we start caring about them?

Friggin’ hypocrite. Why not rail against how other animals are being treated in our industrial food processes? Or how immigrant farm workers and immigrant butchers are treated? Or how immigrant waitstaff and cooking staff are treated. Foie is so important?

Give me a break!

He didn’t say “conscientious consumers”, he said “credulous consumers”, as in those who believe without all the information.

I’m 52 years old, and I’ve never had foie (or caviar for that matter), but I don’t consider those who enjoy it to be elite. I just have no interest in eating these things.

However, I don’t buy Smithsfield products: I know where my pork comes from (I’ve seen it alive). I think we should do the best we can with what we eat, and leave everyone else alone. US culture is not the only culture.

I love sustainable agriculture and think that end is applause worthy. But I might find it more applaud worthy if he were only serving organic sustainable food rather than just featuring it or banning products.

Start challenging how the cows and chickens are farmed to provide Mickey D’s with Big Yacks and Chicken Mcsuckits, and it would be a different story.

Also, Puck’s soups sell mostly in health food stores where I live (Toronto) and I suspect that’s the case elsewhere as well. It would be really stupid to alienate a huge part of his customer base. After all, he’s not making his restaurants vegan, just sourcing his product from somewhere with better conditions. There will still be the same meat dishes as always, only from humane sources. Who can argue with that? Does anyone really want their chicken to be sick and insane when it goes to slaughter?

I’m sorry that Wolfy has been frog-marched down the Charlie Trotter path.

I’m temporarily in NYC and I think I’ll walk next door to Les Halles and have their Rossini burger out of revenge.

I’ve done the research, and on balance, it seems to me that ducks destined to provide foie have a hell of a better life than, say, factory-farmed pigs. One would think that if one were truly concerned about animal welfare and sustainability, one would start here, where a huge number of animals are treated poorly and consumers can actively vote with their dollars to enact change.

Starting with foie instead is a media move. The vast majority of Americans, having never tasted foie, can get behind the ban without any personal sacrifice.

I invite you to consider what would happen if your average anti-foie person stopped by their local fast-food restaurant only to discover their favorite meal cost $2 extra due to being made with free-range meats.

I know some people are anti-foie as an animal rights issue, and/or as a human health issue. I respect those stances wholeheartedly. On balance, though, I think most of the anti-foie movement by celebrity chefs/pundits/media is about old-fashioned politics and greed, nothing more.

It’s funny how “foodies” now have such an exaggerated recoil and backlash response to any bit of news which is anti-foie.

However, I definately see the other side of it. California Cuisine has sagged (Puck’s restaurants have lost their newness, they are old hat and commonplace these days.) but their prices have not.

Appealing to the crowd who wants to eat more sustainable, humanely raised food/animals involves a willingness to pay higher costs.

This might be a way to hlp him increase his prices and bolster the uniqueness of his business.

As for his soup lines… Still decent compared to other canned soups, still expensive, and available in every major grocery market chain in california. I’d much rather make a pot of Bear Creek dry soup mixes than a can of Pucks, tho.

This foie gras issue really seems to get foodies all hopped up, but I can’t see why. Eat it if you want, you just can’t go to Puck’s place to eat it. Big fooking deal, you know?

The HSUS is holding him up as a shining example in the culinary world, shining to those in favor of animal rights and especially humane farming. The HSUS is not shoving vegetarianism down anyone’s throats (yet), they are no PETA, but they are advocates for larger pens and cages for the livestock, and for all humane animal farming practices, i.e. no goose liver enlarging due to force feeding.

This reminds me of the initial cigarette smoking bans, and how smokers freaked out when they could no longer smoke inside public buildings, or on airplanes. Now it’s standard, and fairly accepted, if unhappily. There may be a day when all animals raised for their meat are treated humanely, and would this really be so horrible?

I’m a former meat eater, and meat LOVER, so I can relate to wanting to eat whatever a person wants to eat, be it guinea pig, dog, cat, or calf that’s been raised in a pen and not allowed to move at all before it’s been slaughtered. Hell, I loved veal, and pork, but I never tried foie gras, it’s true. Still, I defend YOUR and everyone else’s right to eat what you want, just as I would defend the animal’s right to a decent existence on this planet, not subject to undue suffering. You dig?