Fois Gras

[Kezzie]

Quote:
If you haven't seen this video, you should. Today, the way I think about fois gras has changed. It doesn't have to be the way it most often is.

 

[saddina]

Quote:
If you haven't seen this video, you should. Today, the way I think about fois gras has changed. It doesn't have to be the way it most often is.

No it doesn't HAVE to be that way, but it often is. I won't eat it, the whole force feeding thing I can't renconsile with my feelings about meat animals deserving a life without undue stress, fear or trauma.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

Thanks for the link .... nice information. One question is are you growing figs and olives and such for your ducks and geese? Or are you going to use the tube feeding methods? Another thing someone else pointed out that tube feeding was not legal in some states my question is to them then what about the animals that need this to save their lives? We had a calve that would not bottle feed and we had to tube him to save him.

 

[brandywine]

I saw an episode of Gordon Ramsay's F Word in which one of his people visited a "conventional" Mom & Pop foi gras producer in France, and humane, free-range producer in Spain.

The filthy, cowering, squealing, terrified ducks in France broke my heart. So did their freakish livers, filling their entire body cavities.

It was clear that the gavage was painful and frightening. From what I know of ducks, they do not become less panicky with daily handling that hurts and scares them.

How could you?

The free-range geese, who fatten themselves up in the Fall -- a habit that hearkens to the natural need to store calories before the migration -- were perfectly happy birds.

Their livers are enlarged, but not diseased. The super-huge livers created by gavage are diseased, not just "big." What's it like living for even a few weeks with acute liver disease?

Just as I would eat a mother-raised veal calf, I'd eat that Spanish foi gras. But the diseased liver of a gavaged duck or goose? Not after seeing that video.