July 1, California bans Foie gras

Efros · 914797. Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:17 am

Gavage is the practice of force feeding corn to ducks/geese by means of a pipe inserted in their throat in an effort to produce a foie gras. the sale and production of foie gras is about to be banned in California.

Personally I don't care for it, so the ban doesn't really bother me one way or the other. I do have qualms about its method of production as it seems downright cruel, but then one could argue that the production of any meat based food is ultimately cruel to the animal it comes from.

mckeonj · 914850. Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:46 am

<JC mode>
Should we start farming fat people?
<end JC mode>

Strawberry · 914866. Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:03 am

We had another thread about foie gras a while ago. Link

exnihilo · 914867. Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:06 am

Personally, I like foie gras and will continue eating it even knowing how it's produced. Too many of these campaigns smack of "oh, what beasts we humans are, wouldn't it be better if we all returned to nature which was lovely, and gentle, and kind, trala!"

cornixt · 914975. Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:33 am

There will always be some elements of cruelty in eating animals, but foie gras and veal go over the line of what I am comfortable with.

'yorz · 914987. Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:43 am

I am only comfortable with whatever is free range. Certifiably free range, that is. That restricts what I can get on me pleeyat, but that's OK with me.

NinOfEden · 915000. Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:08 am

Starfish13 · 915008. Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:22 am

Leith · 915054. Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:41 pm

I'll not pretend I have a particularly logical or consistent attitude to what I'm not comfortable eating, as it's not something I've given that much thought, but I guess my instinctive response is to try to avoid eating things in the following categories:

- Animals that I consider to be endangered / in severe decline (e.g. cod)
- Animals that I consider to be particularly intelligent* (I've gone off octopus lately for that reason, but have yet to see a bored squid so I'll carry on eating them for now).
- Animals that have been tortured / severly maltreated (e.g. fois gras, unless specifically identified as having been prepared in some more humane fashion than usual)
- Kiwi fruit**

I'm generally quite happy to eat animals that are:
- cute and fluffy (provided they aren't still so after they've been cooked)
- not traditionally considered foodstuffs in the uk (in fact I'm particularly curious to try such things on the whole)

On the (possibly quite significant) limits of my current knowledge, I'd assume most, if not all, whales to fit the intelligent category, while many would fit the endangered category, too. For similar reasons, I can't imagine ever being happy to eat gorilla or chimpanzee.

I don't consciously feel as if cultural taboos feature heavily in my choice of diet, but cultural acceptances probably do. I suspect this makes it easier for me to have not looked too closely into how intelligent pigs and cows may be. I feel inclined to pay a certain amount of respect to other people's cultures in this regard, too.

I imagine that if I was staying in some traditional subsistence community and was offered whale meat they'd caught by hand at some personal risk, then I'd probably feel obliged to accept. But I'd not feel ok about buying whale meat from a commercial whaler in a restaurant just because the local people used to live that way. I'm not sure how the ethics of that would stand up to logical scrutiny, but that's what my instincts say.

* (and hence more readily anthropomorphised, perhaps)
** (because they're evil and wrong and I think you all secretly know it)

Efros · 915056. Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:55 pm

With you on the kiwi fruit, disgusting things. Almost as bad as passion fruit.

'yorz · 915068. Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:04 pm

Oh nooooo - passion fruit is divine! Especially if you can buy them still attached to a branch. This incredible explosion of gorgeous freshness on your tongue.... <drools>

CB27 · 915071. Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:13 pm

I love Kiwi fruit, but it's hard to find decent ripe ones here :(

Efros · 915075. Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:23 pm

I can't get over the look and texture of passion fruit, somewhat akin to frog spawn mated with semi congealed snot. Now that I think of it, it's the texture of foie gras that puts me off.

Arcane · 915079. Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:08 pm

exnihilo · 915129. Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:59 am

I think all the lines anyone draws are artificial and more than a little hypocritical. I eat animals, that's it. No 'they must have been hugged before being slaughtered' or anything of that ilk.