Tag Archives: foie gras

Nestlé launches plant-based Foie Gras

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Nestlé has just come out with a plant-based version of the duck liver pâté, Foie Gras. Nestlé, the multinational food giant, sees plant-based food as one of its biggest growth opportunities.  Based in Switzerland, Nestlé’s products cover everything from baby food, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea to confectionery, dairy products, frozen food and even pet food.  They are produced in 447 factories operating in 189 countries.  So when they decide to launch new plant-based products, it’s a big deal.

One of the products we’re most excited about is their Garden Gourmet Voie Gras, a vegan pâté that mimics the taste and texture of the traditional duck liver pâté, Foie Gras, which is making its debut in Switzerland.  We’ve written before about the horrific way that ducks are treated in order to produce Foie Gras, which is considered a delicacy in many high class restaurants.  However, with various cities, states and even countries banning Foie Gras, the production of an animal-free replacement product seems like a great opportunity.

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New York bans Foie Gras

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Geese for foie grasIn New York City, lawmakers recently passed a bill banning the sale of Foie Gras in restaurants and grocery stores. As voted on, the bill “would prohibit retail food establishments or food service establishments from storing, maintaining, selling, or offering to sell force-fed products or food containing a force-fed product.”  The bill calls for a fine of up to $2000 for each violation, but top chefs aren’t happy about it, and plan an appeal in the courts.

Foie gras is the fattened goose liver that is considered a delicacy in many high class restaurants. Unfortunately it can only be produced by force feeding geese. Animal welfare activists had campaigned for a ban on the grounds that the methods used to produce foie gras are cruel. The force-feeding begins when the ducks are fully grown, about 12 weeks after they’re born. A worker inserts a 6-inch (15-centimeter) plastic tube into the duck’s beak, squirting a soft mix of corn, soybeans and water to the top of the throat. They’re fed every eight hours for three weeks, and then slaughtered.

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More Countries Ban Foie Gras – the indelicate delicacy!

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GeeseWe are happy to report that India has just joined the growing honor roll of countries which have banned foie gras, or swollen goose, and sometimes duck, liver.

The initiative for the ban got started in 2012 by animal welfare organizations complaining to their government, and documenting the awful conditions that geese and ducks endure while being force fed in order to swell their livers. India has also taken the extra step of not only banning the production of foie gras, but also banning its importation.

Other countries banning the production of foie gras under various laws and regulations include the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Israel, Turkey and Argentina. Unfortunately, countries that still produce it include Canada, China, Bulgaria, Spain, Hungary, and of course, France.

Closer to home, the city of Chicago has also banned foie gras, as has the entire state of California, where it has successfully survived several court challenges and now may be headed for the Supreme Court.

Producing foie gras is considered to be particularly harsh by animal welfare groups, as well as unhealthy by health groups. For anyone who still wants foie gras, we’re happy to say that there are now animal-product-free foie gras analogues, such as the very popular White Truffle Country Pate, made by our home-town company, Field Roast, and there’s also Elianni’s Vegan Pate. Both are available at local veg-friendly grocery stores, or by mail order through several online veg mail order companies. Some of the local vegetarian restaurants also feature an indulgent vegetarian pate. Or, if you like to cook, try this recipe!

Learn more about the California Foie Gras ban here.

Court Battles for Animals and the Environment

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Caged chickensFrequently these days, people who care about the plight of farm animals are taking their case to court. Thanks to a number of laws passed with the support and backing of groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), those concerned with animal welfare are able to use the legal system to protect the farm animals.

A federal appeals court has ruled California can keep in place its ban on selling foie gras. A Los Angeles court will still hear the case against the ban, but in its decision, the ninth US circuit court of appeals expressed doubt that opponents of the law would be successful. The law bars state farmers from force-feeding ducks with a tube, the procedure used to produce foie gras. It also bans sales of the delicacy. The legislature concluded tube-feeding ducks and geese to engorge their livers is cruel. Read more

California Bans Foie Gras

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Foie gras, which is French for “fatty liver,” is the diseased and enlarged liver of a duck or goose, produced through force-feeding. If producing foie gras doesn’t cross the line between harsh conditions and outright cruelty, we don’t know what does. Fortunately, now the public is finally taking a stand against it and a legal ban against foie gras has just gone into effect in California.

Here’s just a bare outline of some of the almost too gruesome details of foie gras production. Each day for several weeks, a pipe is shoved down the birds’ throats to force-feed them. As a result, the birds’ livers, diseased with hepatic lipidosis, grow up to 10 times their normal size. The livers are then sold as foie gras. Force-feeding causes a number of injuries: bruising or perforation of the esophagus; hemorrhaging and inflammation of the neck resulting from the repeated insertion of the pipe into the throat; and asphyxia caused by food improperly forced into the trachea. Wounds of the esophagus may subsequently become infected. Force-feeding also results in numerous illnesses and disease, including hepatic lipidosis, bacterial and fungal infections, malnourishment, and lameness. For these reasons, mortality rates for force-feed ducks are 10 to 20 times higher than those for non-force fed ducks.

If you find such conditions disturbing you’re not alone. According to a 2004 Zogby poll 77 percent of U.S.adults believe the process of force-feeding ducks or geese to produce foie gras should be banned. Behavioral evidence suggests ducks and geese experience fear, as well as acute and chronic stress from the multiple daily force-feedings and the pain associated with them.

Nationally, several restaurants and retailers—such as Costco, Safeway, Target, Giant Eagle, PCC Natural Markets, Whole Foods Market, and Wolfgang Puck—refuse to sell foie gras. Internationally, due to the animal cruelty involved, more than a dozen countries—including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel (formerly the world’s fourth-largest foie gras producer), Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Argentina—have either outright prohibited force-feeding for foie gras production, or have interpreted it as illegal under existing anti-cruelty laws.

Congratulations to the Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary, and a host of other animal rights and welfare groups for helping to get the new Californian law passed and the ban put into effect.