Shock and Foie: Chris Cosentino on Foie Gras

Chris Cosentino of Incanto posted an open letter recently defending the right to eat foie gras and questioning the motives of those out to ban it. His basic premise is that foie gras is an easy target because so few people eat it so there aren't enough people to stand up for it. Also that annual consumption is so low that if all foie gras consumption in the US stopped, it wouldn't really make any difference in the overall balance of animal cruelty (not to mention the question of whether or not it's cruel in the first place.)

It's a well written and thoughtful article, even if you don't necessarily agree with his point of view. (Although FWIW, I do.)

Letter here

Excellent, intelligently presented arguments. Makes me want to run out and get some foie gras right now, not just because I love it, but to strike a blow for the cause.

And if Incanto were here in Chicago, I'd be trying to get a reservation for tonight.

I guess we have drastically differing views on what "intelligently presented" means.

cilantro wrote:I guess we have drastically differing views on what "intelligently presented" means.

It means I agree with much of what he says.

Exactly. Very few people writing about this issue (most issues, really) respect the other side enough to give it a fair shake without resorting to caricature or straw men.

I don't eat foie gras so I have no real opinion on it. I did see a show on TV last week that featured the Dordogne region of France where it is prevalent. They showed a duck (or were they geese??) farm where they hand feeding the animals, as they have done for centuries. They put a kind of thin funnel like tube down their necks and the animals seemed to easily eat the grain. They did not squirm or seem in pain. It made me wonder whether in fact it is cruel. I know the animals are being raised to be killed for food, and some feel eating any animal is cruel. The show basically said that the animals necks were such that they could easily assimilate the funnel and they were not in pain. Of course their livelihood depends on this so they have a certain view point.

P.S. Yes good article. Basically the show supports what the article says. The animals did not appear to be in distress and seemed to be able to assimilate the tubing as their necks are long and flexible.

LTH,

On another Foie Gras note, I just posted about a reading and book signing by Mark Caro author of The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight

Enjoy,
Gary

One of the city's most notable Foie proponents - Chef Didier Durand of Cyrano's - is opening a foie gras museum here in Chicago. I'm overdue for a visit to Cyrano's.