Personally, I think foie gras is gross. It tastes like meat icing, emphasis on “icing.” My mom’s chopped liver? Yum. Buttery, fatty duck puree? Overrated. Still, I’m with Bethany—focusing on foie ignores the larger problems in our food system, a food system increasingly dominated by large factory farms raising thousands of animals using inhumane methods that require huge quantities of drugs to keep them alive. While that system continues to do indescribable damage to our health, communities, and environment, so-called “animal rights” protesters are obsessing about a niche product produced on small farms that few people ever eat.

Still convinced that foie gras is the root of all evil? Check out the Accidental Hedonist’s foie gras primer, where you’ll learn how force-feeding works; what an enlarged liver feels like for a duck; and why foie gras is such an easy target. I don’t expect it to convince the animal rights nuts—they’re too busy comparing small business owners to child pornographers, disrupting people’s dinners, and accusing dog owners of genocide—but for the reasonable among you, it’s a handy, informative guide.

58 replies on “You Know What We Haven’t Talked About Enough Lately? FOIE GRAS!”

  5. So … they talk about foie gras … and you in turn talk about factory farms.
    Their protests did serve a larger purpose, probably just as designed.

  6. THE EXISTENCE OF WORSE THINGS IN THE WORLD DOESN’T MAKE IT RIGHT.

    That reasoning is getting OLD, Stranger staff. OLD. Using the “there are worse things” argument doesn’t make sense. Using that reasoning, one would only keep jumping up and up the scale of icky bad things in the world to contest. It would be neverending. So why bother protesting factory farming? Really, if global warming or deforestation is eventually going to fuck us all anyway, why bother? Just think of all the suffering animals when they get drownded when the seas rise! Just think of all the suffering animals when their ponds dry up! Factory farming, PSHAW!

    Force feeding and overfeeding an animal is still wrong. EVEN with factory farming, global warming, genocide, racism, starving children and “advanced interrogation techniques.”

    And that is NOT a COMPARISON between foie gras production and those greater evils.

  7. So g… according you the fact that I eat meat completely trumps the fact that I recycle, use reusable grocery bags, keep my energy bills low, let it mellow when it’s yellow.

    That’s a bunch of crap.

  10. So did they interview the ducks to find out how an enlarged liver feels? Really, if they know that the REAL story is we can speak “duckish”. And that’s impressive!

  14. @4: Since I eat meat, I might as well just burn all my trash, reroute my sewer pipe right into a streambed, buy a Hummer, and only buy things that come wrapped in at least two layers of plastic. Right?

  15. @ 6 You just don’t get it, do you? The argument being made by The Stranger staff is that if you disagree with cruel farming practices and want to stop them you should protest factory farming as a whole, not a niche product eaten by less than 1% of the population of Seattle and the country (my assumption could be wrong, but I am sure it hovers around that). If NARN really wants to impact the conversation and work toward a solution they would use their limited resources and energy in planning an effective protest that has a chance of working. That of course would require a level of rational thought that that organization and others seem incapable of generating.

  17. Sexy sexy meat icing.
    My husband proposed to me in Paris. We spent a wonderful week there and every night we managed to have foie gras. I recall a little bistro that had been handed down to the son. He was the chef, though his Father sometimes came in and did the cook for old time’s sake. The son’s wife took care of serving duties. He served up this excellent lightly sauteed foie gras with a balsamic reduction. Exquisite mix of flavors. The whole meal was amazing.
    It was such a cozy and loving experience all around. People who took great care in what they presented and you could feel it.

  19. There are obviously bigger problems with the food supply, and these are being addressed by organizations on the national and international level.

    BUT, I don’t think there’s a bigger food issue that can be corrected on the local stage by people who can’t dedicate their entire lives to solving these problems. People with day jobs and other things going on in their lives can help stop the spread of foie gras in Seattle right now.

    Foie gras has over tripled in worldwide production in the past decade, and over 80% is still eaten in France and Quebec. If foie gras continues to rise in popularity, it will be difficult to stop. The European Union banned foie gras production in areas where it’s not already being produced, but it’s very difficult to ban in France and Hungary, where hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars now depend on the foie gras factory farms.

    If we ban the spread of foie gras sales and production in Washington state now, we won’t have to deal with the tricky issue of banning foie gras later on when people’s jobs are on the line. The only economic impact of banning foie gras now would be a small sales hit for a factory farm in New York and a small menu change for a handful of local restaurants.

  21. I see baby birds getting food stuffed down their throats by their mothers all the time. It seems like the process by which foie gras is made is perfectly natural for birds.

    This is the same as throwing blood on rich woman in fur instead of bikers in leather. Easy targets to give the illusion of doing something.

  22. And, really, the article you linked to was ridiculous. Foie gras is not a harmless food, and the blog you linked to has many many articles showing recipes and whatnot for foie gras. Some foie gras chef saying “geese like being force fed until they die!” is not even close to an unbiased source.

    Here are a couple links I posted on another thread about what actually happens at Hudson Valley Foie Gras (one of the evil large factory farms you mentioned). Yes, these links are from anti-foie gras activists, but they’re mostly pictures and videos that show the cruelty of foie gras without editorial judgments about whether ducks like torture or not.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBBFtDEs-…
    http://www.gourmetcruelty.com/inv.php

  23. @22 there’s not one foie gras recipe on the site with the primer. If there is one, could you point it out please, because I couldn’t find it.

  24. @ Every animal rights “activist” posting in these comment forums. GET. A. CLUE! Your histrionics and self-righteousness cause nothing but harm to your “cause.” No one cares about Foie Gras because in the big scheme of cruelty and injustice it really doesn’t measure up. To borrow a phrase from a funny movie: “It Just Doesn’t Matter.” Your protests at Lark don’t matter. Your righteous anger doesn’t matter. Foie Gras itself doesn’t matter. Your energy would be better spent working on causes that might be able to foment actual change in the system you decry.

    PS @ 19 You can make a difference on international and national issues w/o being a full-time employee of an NGO or activist organization. Look at the effectiveness of Amnesty International’s letter writing campaigns to free prisoners of conscious. Those campaigns are successful because they leverage a bit of free time from everyday people.

  25. @22 Doesn’t know (or care) what quotation marks mean. Not only does the page not say “geese like being force fed until they die!” it says if they are force fed to the point of discomfort the process is being done wrong.

    Don’t bother her with the facts! There’s something to get emotional about!

  26. Nice post, ECB.

    Fuck the NARNians — anyone up for a good old fashioned egging on Friday?

    Good to see jackass Lizzie is still with us…

  27. Erica: “my mom’s chopped liver.” That’s a gross image. I hope you at least anesthetized her when you took it out!

    @ 17: hahahaha: “He was the chef, though his Father sometimes came in and did the cook for old time’s sake.” Those crazy French–gay incest and a good meal.

  29. Lizzie has hardly been a “jackass” about any of this. Heaven forfend someone try to explain the viewpoint of people whose behavior differs from yours.

  31. The Stranger has become the alt-weekly Fox News: “Fair and Balanced”. Not to mention shrill, histrionic, one-sided, hypocritical, and ready to do anything for ratings (or in their case, site hits).

    And I’ve been wondering for the past month where all the usual commenters have gone. I guess people have jumped ship, and now it’s being swarmed by trolls.

  32. #7 Farm animals generate more climate change emissions than automobiles and airplanes. 18%. That’s according to those wacko nutjobs at the U.N., quoted here in the New York Times.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/scienc…

    But don’t look into this because ignorance is bliss and I’m sure you still want to look down on those people who drive SUVs while you’re enjoying your steak.

  33. “People with day jobs and other things going on in their lives can help stop the spread of foie gras in Seattle right now. “

    These people have jobs? Must be pretty shitty whish is why they hate people who can afford foie gras.

    “try to explain the viewpoint of people whose behavior differs from yours.”

    That’s not the problem. The problem is she wants to impose her lifestyle on us.

    Besides, I lived in France. Women there who eat foie gras will put ANYTHING if their mouths. The worst blow job I got was from an uptight vegan in NYC. Seriously, I think all girls should be made to eat foie gras from age 13 to better prepare them for blowing us meat eaters.

    Seriously, would anyone here want a BJ from Lizzie?

  34. OH sweet baby jesus i wrapped a lobe of seared foie gras around my cock, let it cool first of course, fastened it with twine, and my beautiful meat eating girlfriend went to town. Holy moley baby she choked it all up and we had the best dinner ever. Fucking tasty foie fucking gras.

  35. 32: I wasn’t the one looking down my nose.

    Guess I’ll just go back to using plastic bags and styrofoam, since it does absolutely no good thanks to my steak. I said nothing of SUVs… or airplanes. Get off your fucking high horse and accept the fact that some people eat meat AND care about the environment.

  36. Seriously boys, who would you rather bed:

    1. A boy or girl who looks at a plate of foie gras, dives in slurping and burping, licking his/her lips in delight, moaning with pleasure as they stuff it in their mouths.

    or

    2. The boy or girl who looks at a plate of foie gras and puckers up tighter than a virgin’s ass, looks like he/she’s gonna puke and runs out the room.

    Now, who do you think will be better in bed?

  37. Oh, my God!

    I just tasted some Foie Gras and it was orgasmic. Never mind all of my previous posts. My bad. I now realize that I was talking out of my ass. I am now going to dedicate myself to force feeding the little fuckers myself. So damn good!

  38. “One may regret living at a period when it’s impossible to form an idea of the shape the world of the future will assume. But there’s one thing I can predict to eaters of meat: the world of the future will be vegetarian.”

    Adolf Hitler
    1941

  39. “The only thing of which I shall be incapable is to share the sheiks’ mutton with them. I’m a vegetarian, and they must spare me from their meat.”

    Adolf Hitler
    1942

  40. Lizzie’s not bad. She’s painfully earnest to the point of irritating and often misinformed, but she’s at least attempting discourse, which is more than can be said for most of both sides.

  41. “An extended chapter of our talk was devoted by the Führer to the vegetarian question. He believes more than ever that meat-eating is harmful to humanity. Of course he knows that during the war we cannot completely upset our food system. After the war, however, he intends to tackle this problem also. Maybe he is right. Certainly the arguments that he adduces in favor of his standpoint are very compelling.”

    Joseph Goebbels
    1942

  42. OK i got a new one you aint gonna believe. I stuffed 2 foie gras lobes into my gal’s vagina. We went into a sauna for 20 minutes. when we got out, i put her up on the table and slowly ate that steamed fucking foie gras right out of her fucking beautifully waxed pussy. So slow and so fucking TASTY BEAUTIFUL FOIE GRAS HOW I LOVE THEEEEEE.

  43. God, the Stranger staff are assholes. Not one of you have convincingly explained how protesting foie gras at Lark “ignore[] the larger problems in our food industry.” This is not an either/or proposition, and a contempt-filled assertion is not an argument.

    It is indeed enlightening to have Erica, unabashed lover of mom’s chopped liver, waxing eloquently about how a handful of animal rights’ activists have lost sight of the problems related to industrial meat production, including that said production is “inhumane.” I guess the inhumanity is especially tasty when mom gets a hold of it.

    Your seemingly worthwhile posts on transportation and local politics will now be read by a more wary eye.

    Oh, and third time asking: How much does Lark spend in advertising at the Stranger?

  44. “If I offer a child the choice between a pear and a piece of meat, he’ll quickly choose the pear. That’s his atavistic instinct speaking.”
- Adolf Hitler. December 28, 1941. Section 81, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

    “The only thing of which I shall be incapable is to share the sheiks’ mutton with them. I’m a vegetarian, and they must spare me from their meat.”
- Adolf Hitler. January 12, 1942. Section 105, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

    “At the time when I ate meat, I used to sweat a lot. I used to drink four pots of beer and six bottles of water during a meeting. … When I became a vegetarian, a mouthful of water was enough.”
- Adolf Hitler. January 22, 1942. Section 117, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

    “When you offer a child the choice of a piece of meat, an apple, or a cake, it’s never the meat that he chooses. There’s an ancestral instinct there.”
- Adolf Hitler. January 22, 1942. Section 117, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

    “One has only to keep one’s eyes open to notice what an extraordinary antipathy young children have to meat.”
- Adolf Hitler. April 25, 1942. Section 198, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

    “When I later gave up eating meat, I immediately began to perspire much less, and within a fortnight to perspire hardly at all. My thirst, too, decreased considerably, and an occasional sip of water was all I required. Vegetarian diet, therefore, has some obvious advantages.”
- Adolf Hitler. July 8, 1942. Section 256, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

    “I am no admirer of the poacher, particularly as I am a vegetarian.”
- Adolf Hitler. August 20, 1942. Section 293, HITLER’S TABLE TALK

  45. Erica, OK, you don’t like foie paté. Fine.

    Try a bit of quickly pan seared terrine made from a solid (entier) foie gras. It is a totally different experience.

  47. #35 – You are SO right. I am sick of people on their high horse giving me grief about my lifestyle. Just because I drive an SUV and enjoy offroading and own a power boat and live in 4900 sq. ft. house doesn’t mean I don’t care about the environment. I care about the environment as much as anybody! As it just so happens, I am an avid recycler.

  48. 47: eating a steak is the equivalent to being a Hummer driving, McMansion owning, pleasure boating guy who just so happens to throw his cans in a different bin?!

    I wasn’t the one who starting judging people. If you want to be a veg, go for it. All I said was that I eat meat. I hardly see how that compares to being completely irresponsible about other environmental issues.

    But, you’ll continue to think I’m the root of all evil and I’ll just agree to disagree at this point.

  49. I love foie gras. When my girl is on the rag and acting real bitchy, I take some home from the restaurant I work in, heat it up in the microwave, put it in a rubber glove, and fuck the shit out of it.

Comments are closed.