Foie Gras: Gone Again?

Another issue is the mainstream impression that foie gras farms aren’t already humane. You go to Hudson Valley and the standards are better than almost any other animal farm. No doubt there are farms that are probably terrible, but is it worse than animal industries? I doubt it. It’s not the product, it’s the farm.

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100% agreement. And to my knowledge, Hudson Valley is the only commercial producer in the US. The ducks’ throats aren’t like others, it’s a brief and gentle process, etc. But, gawd-forbid, that we should confuse them with the facts.

And as I said, check out pig gestation crates.

image<img src=‘//foodtalkcentral.sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com/original/3X/f/8/f8ce30aaf696d27c547547cda349153cf5502144.jpg’ alt=“Image result for gestation crates”/

I guess that depends on your definition of “humane.” I have been to a famous foie grass farm in New York and for me, I would definitely not describe it as “humane.” It’s like one of those quote unquote free range farms where, yes there is a bit of outdoor space, but the ducks are mostly crowded into a large indoor shelter. During the gavage phase, and I’m not entirely shure what percentage of their lives are during gavage, they are kept in pens. It seems like better conditions then the worst factory farms, but not exactly the life I would want if I was a duck. It does seem like low lying fruit and I’m against banning it, but if humane treatment of animals is something you really care about, you probably shouldn’t be eating it. I would equate it with being slightly worse then the majority of factory farm beef, but better then factory farmed chicken in my opinion.

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You shouldn’t be wearing leather shoes.

Agreed

Oh, the ‘discussions’ I’ve had about that one :smile:

Pig Head.

After indulging with a group of 2 others, I went home and felt like I had bathed in lard, followed with cleansing using a bidet billed with lard.

It was tasty, though.

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Praise the lard.

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We’ve had the one at Social in Costa Mesa. Delicious. They served theirs with guacamole, salsas, and tortillas. We keep wanting to get a group for RR, but it hasn’t worked out yet.

When you try it at RR, let me know what you think.

When I was scooping blobs of gelatinous gelatin from the head, I kept having flashbacks to that scene in Moby Dick about blubber …

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Activists terrorised the owner, sending him photos of his family, stuff like that. CA had one producer, so it was a law that put a single person out of business, which is too bad for him. The bigger issue isn’t banning the production, it’s banning the sale of it. So it’s “We don’t believe CA should produce this, but also, we won’t allow you to have a mind of your own to make your own moral decisions about these things.”

Kiriko

Animal

Guerrilla Tacos (when it’s on the menu)

Those are my 3 places to try their foie dishes.

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Actually I remembered that it was 2012, the year I turned 65, not 60. We were petsitting in Sonoma and I went there and bought two lobes as my gift to myself and also to support a family-owned company.

Here’s some info from Hudson Valley.

foie is very delicious.

After reading the link, I went to the products page. They sell rendered foie gras fat! And recommend half-and-half w/ butter on popcorn. OMG. At $30/quart, definitely an affordable indulgence.

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My cardiologist would like a word with you.

Cardiologist: yum!

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Cardiologists: Do as I say, not as I do.

I know plenty of cardio guys who eat plenty of bad stuff and never offset it.

I wonder how difficult / illegal it would be to import a couple pints of that into Canada?