Take The Foie Gras Challenge!

The foie gras industry was just dealt another blow: Costco, the discount retailer and warehouse club, stopped selling the fatty liver, citing animal welfare concerns as one of the main reasons! Other companies, including the retail giant Target, have also made the ethical business decision to stop selling foie gras.

For those who don’t know, foie gras is made by shoving metal pipes down ducks or geese’ throats two or three times a day and pumping up to 4 pounds of grain and fat into their stomachs until their livers enlarge up to ten times their natural size. The pipes sometimes puncture the birds’ throats, causing them to bleed to death. On some foie gras farms, birds spend their whole miserable lives stuffed in individual wire cages no bigger than a shoebox.

The European Union’s Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare has deemed foie gras production inhumane and 16 countries have banned the sale and/or production of foie gras. A ban on the production and sale of foie gras will also take effect in California in 2012. (The ban may have a far reaching impact too. A majority of Costco’s sales are in California, so the impending ban also played a role in the company’s decision to stop selling foie gras.) Several area city councils, including San Francisco, Berkeley, San Diego, West Hollywood, and Solana Beach, have passed resolutions praising restaurants that stop serving foie gras before the state law goes into effect.

However, despite the ever-growing public opposition to foie gras, a number of stores and restaurants throughout the U.S., including the Iron Bridge Wine Co. in Columbia, Maryland and Lark in Seattle, still defiantly serve the cruel dish. And even though foie gras production is banned in the United Kingdom, and many retailers refuse to sell the so-called delicacy, the popular department store Selfridge’s still sells foie gras.

Foie gras is one “luxury” we can all do without. It’s inarguably inhumane, and, as the U.K.’s Times newspaper’s food writer Giles Coren says, “a lazy way for a half-competent chef to make his food seem flash.”

To encourage more creative chefs to give people a comparable, yet compassionate, alternative to eating a diseased duck liver, PETA has issued a Fine Faux Foie Gras Challenge, a search for the best original vegetarian foie gras. The challenge is open to anyone, and the individual, group, or company that develops the winning faux foie gras recipe will win $10,000. Two runners up will receive $1,000 worth of kitchen equipment. (See www.PETA.org for complete contest details and entry information.)

And whether you’re clever in the kitchen or not, you can still take my “personal challenge” to put the foie gras industry out of business. If restaurants or stores in your area sell foie gras, please speak with the management and politely ask them to stop serving it. If they’re unresponsive to your request, consider organizing a demonstration or circulating a petition.

Urge your local lawmakers to introduce or support legislation to prohibit foie gras in your area and explain to others why foie gras production is cruel by writing a letter to the editor of your community paper. Better yet, get a group of friends together for a “letter-writing party.” (You could serve a tasty vegetarian pâté. Tartex brand is available from Pangea at veganstore.com; Bonavita brand is often sold in grocery stores.) For more ideas and an action pack, see www.StopForceFeeding.com.

The “only” prize for taking my personal foie gras challenge is the satisfaction that comes from helping animals, but I’d still love to know about your efforts!

Read more: animal welfare

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Gabriela Z.

4:07PM PDT on Jun 22, 2009

Torturarlos para comerlos no es humano!!!!
Si bien la mayoria de la gente no ejará de comer carne, no necesita maltratar, dañar, herir y lastimar a los animalitos para comerselos...deberian practicarse las alternativas eticas que impidan el torturar a un animal para convertirlo en alimento.

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Sarah v.

5:22AM PDT on Jun 19, 2009

Ducks are my friends, please don't shove metal pipes into them!

10:42AM PDT on Jun 16, 2009

I shop at Target since I began my WalMart boycott years ago. I didn't know Target sold this until now, and I'm so glad to learn that they have stopped selling it! Bravo to Costco for their humane business ethics also!

Heather A.

7:27PM PDT on Jun 12, 2009

This contest is a brilliant idea. Not only does it encourage people to stop buying/making foie gras, but it replaces it with an alternative that is completely cruelty-free.

It's also good to see more and more bans on foie gras. Perhaps this is a sign that people are actually starting to care where their food comes from.

Judy K.

5:08AM PDT on Jun 12, 2009

Several years ago a pr of Mallards flew over our fence to eat from under the bird feeders. So, I started throwing cracked corn and whole corn in the field. In winter the geese arrived. My neighbors complained about all the geese roaming around,poop I guess. But by June the spring rains, the poop is washed away. So I have limited the feeding. And I'd gladly asks the neighbors how things have the ducks or geese stolen from your yard or home?? Someone broke into our garage. And last fall came through the back gate and took a ladder/plank that my husband had chained linked with others to the garage concrete wall!! Now the gate has a padlock on it!

Gemma H.

2:06AM PDT on Jun 11, 2009

This is absolutely gross!! Don't know how any thinking (or not) person could ever eat Foie Gras. As 2 of my pets are geese, cannot understand how any human could inflict them with such an atrocity.
A bit off the subject, but, apparently fish from pet shops are 'force fed' before sale to retailers.

Margret W.

4:15AM PDT on Jun 10, 2009

Foie gras ia a French delicacy. I only had it once many years ago and when I asked..where did it come from and was told how it was done, didn't finish eating it as I thought it was gross.
In the begining of May, a pair of Mallards came up from the river ( a river runs through my property) and started eating the bird food I put out. I found out what they could eat and bought some special food for them; they came twice a day and then flew back to the river.
More and more through the years I have been making veggian food that eating meat.

Past Member .

12:58PM PDT on Jun 9, 2009

Over a year ago, that was one more reason to go vegetarian. I feel great inside and out. Spread the news and educate others about this gross cruelty.

Debbie p.

9:48AM PDT on Jun 9, 2009

Im glad costco stopped selling this!!! waiting for Giants and stop N shop to stop selling it too! poor ducks!i want give up stopping this

9:44AM PDT on Jun 9, 2009

AND THANK YOU TARGET!! FOR STOPPPING SELLING THIS CRUELTY!