|
 The ethical battle over foie gras has been a subject of debate for centuries, and recent legislative action in the United States and beyond has thrown the subject back to the public forum with vengeance. The Chicago ban of foie gras in 2006, following the statewide ban in California in 2004, sparked a national war, with top chefs, public officials and film stars all throwing their hats in the ring. “The Foie Gras Wars” by Mark Caro documents the nature of the delicacy as inherently controversial, and the author struggles to determine what side he’s really on.
Foie
gras is produced by the methodical engorgement of either duck or goose
liver. After about 12-14 weeks of grazing, the animals are ready for
“gavage,” or force-feeding. A long metal tube is inserted into the
esophagus, pumping corn-based feed directly into the stomach. This
occurs three times daily for two to four weeks until the liver reaches
an optimal weight, from one to two pounds. Now for the moral
questions: Does the animal suffer during gavage, or is the bird
physiologically adaptable? Because the liver is the primary suppository
of fowl fat, and gorging practices preceding migration are necessary to
survival, is force-feeding just a slight exaggeration of the norm?
Tales of torn esophagi, exploding livers and vomiting waterfowl are common addendums to an activist’s account of foie gras production, though experienced farmers vehemently refute such allegations as ridiculous. Caro invokes Izzy Yanay, the Israeli proprietor of Sonoma Valley Foie Gras as the primary voice of foie farmers’ rage at activist propaganda. To win the Foie Gras Wars would mean a larger a platform for activists from which to attack the well-financed, and well-connected, Big Food industry. For now, frightening images of metal tubes, hydraulic pumps and panting, overheated ducks will serve to generate public outrage. The fact that foie gras is a luxury food only further alienates the small percentage of privileged advocates from the army of everymen.
Foie Gras is an unapologetic member of haute cuisine, and is chastised as much for this social quality as for the physical. Caro notes that key decision makers in the 2004 Chicago ban were often woefully uninformed of the facts, sounding like talking heads for PETA rather than unbiased protectors of the law. He painstakingly reports from inside the courtroom, though this faithful transcription can be long-winded. More interesting are his tales “from the battlefield,” where the fascinating interplay between activists and foie friendly restaurateurs provides action-packed illustration of each group’s conflicting viewpoints.
Caro focuses on the emergence of Hugs for Puppies, an aptly named animal rights group, as the proverbial thorn in the side of the Philadelphia’s most accomplished foie gras chefs. He studies the group, headed by a “polite young man” named Nick Cooney, with apparent fascination. The violent picketing of foie friendly Chicago restaurants, gives the reader an in-depth look at the nature of activist groups in the United States and their valued modi operandi. The infamous showdown with Terry McNally of the London Grill is recapitulated in detail as a famous setting for the foie wars. Shouting picketers strapped with bullhorns and televisions playing gruesome, yet silent, foie movies were met with entertained, wildly drunken diners who vied for an outdoor seat. Whispered threats and waving fists become the fodder for court injunctions for both sides.
The London Grill was forced to stop serving foie gras in 2008, the height of the foie unrest, due to economic necessity. The chef looks forward to getting it back on the menu. Not all restaurants under siege took the same stance. Many caved in to Cooney’s demands to stop serving the delicacy, citing the unsavory tactics of the group, rather than an idyllic change of heart, as the ultimate reason. Though Cooney would remind readers that his group had only been accused of certain crimes, the steps taken by Hugs activists appear extreme, ranging from large-scale vandalism to personal threats and vicious attempts at character defamation. It is difficult to find sympathy for them in Caro’s account, and the legality of their “moral” intervention is questionable at best.
Caro’s best writing is employed in the description of his exploits with foie gras during the long period of research. His witty accounts of a layman’s approach to foie gras, from lobe extraction to extravagant dinners to actual slaughter are illuminating, providing refreshing distance from the stuffy courtroom debates of previous chapters. His use of imagery—of smells, colors, sounds and, of course, taste—perfectly conveys the feeling of a rural lifestyle to those not personally versed in the nuance.
Caro’s experiences with the archetypal “small farms” are noted with both scholarly appreciation and personal, childlike delight. There is a definite beauty in the small farm, where an intimate understanding of the lifecycle is unavoidable in the daily birth and slaughter of its animals. Caro is reluctant to pass judgment without firsthand experience, and he encourages us all to look beyond the supermarket cellophane to redefine our relationship with food as individuals.
However you slice it, or sear it, foie gras is a food deserving of respect. Amorous chefs coddle the lobes as little pieces of culinary perfection, while activists would suggest that respect (or obsession) for a part only decreases respect for the whole; i.e., the living duck. In commercial beef, poultry and fish production, species undergo genetic alteration to achieve an “ideal” state. Chickens with massive breasts, cows with overflowing udders and rapid laying hens are all products of convoluted husbandry. In foie gras production, it is only the individual liver that is changed, and each fowl is given at least a couple of months to live an unfettered life. Caro reconciles the issue of foie gras as one of personal choice, where the question of the ends justifying the means is individual at best. As a moral issue, the “Foie Gras Wars” will continue to rage; hopefully, both sides will learn to exercise tolerance and to direct their passions to address the most egregious errors of commercial food production.
-Natalie Fasano
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
| AIM: askeats | Twitter: eatsdotcom
 |
