'France's Nigella' renounces foie gras | Life and style | guardian.co.uk
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The above is an article publicizing the recent decision of a French culinary master to "silently" boycott Foie Gras by refraining from it and leaving it out of her cookbooks and recipe publications in the future. For those of you who don't know, Foie Gras is French for "fatty liver" and has been considered a culinary delicacy for hundreds of years. What you may not know, is that this "fatty liver" is obtained from male geese and ducks by some beyond-abysmal means. In order for the liver to become "fatty", geese and/or ducks are force-fed by feeding machines (depicted in the above article and video below) which basically involve a placing a long tube down the birds throat and pouring in an average of 20-30 percent of the animal's body weight in food two to three times per day . This would be the equivalent of an average sized person ingesting 40lbs of pasta three times per day! The livers become so enlarged that they can be seen through the skin of the animals, which is unfortunately when you know they are "ready" to be killed for this product. The other disturbing consideration is that the birds are kept either in extremely small cages or are literally stapled or nailed to wooden boards shortly after birth to keep them from moving too much. The rationale for this being that the more they move, the more of the precious force-fed bird feed they will lose to expanded energy. Most geese on Foie Gras farms will never spread one wing, except when flapping in anguish during their feeding times. I am posting a video below for those of you who eat or have eaten this product in the past. Although I do not believe the vegetarian lifestyle is easy for everyone, nor do I strictly & religiously practice it myself (although getting closer with each passing day), I do believe that we should all know where our food is coming from before making ethical and educated decisions on what we put into our mouths. If you can watch this and continue to consume it, then at least you have made an informed decision. (There's that informed consent again!) The video below is disturbing, at best, but is unfortunately not modified nor falsified.
The chef who made this decision took a bold risk in stepping apart from the culinary norm, and although I have dedicated this post to respecting and praising her decision, the sentiment is likely unshared by her esteemed peer circle.
A mind stretched by a new idea can rarely regain its former dimensions.
Foie Gras Video
I had heard of this before and knew it involved some terrible treatment of the animals, but did not know the horrible details. Not only have I not had it, nor will I, but I'll be sure to boycott any establishment that insists on having it on their menu. On a side note, I thoroughly enjoyed your use of the word abysmal (but I'm not sure of your spelling).
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