San Diego Groups Seek to Ban Foie Gras: What is Foie Gras and Why is it Bad?

What is foie gras and why is it bad?

Foie gras (translated literally from French as "fatty liver" and pronounced 'fwah grah') is produced by cruel and inhumane farming practices. At just a few months old, ducks are confined inside dark sheds and force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day. A farm worker grabs each duck and, one by one, thrusts a metal pipe down their throats so that a mixture of corn can be forced directly into their gullets. In just a matter of weeks, the ducks become grossly overweight and their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size.

As a result, ducks raised for foie gras have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing. Many of them die before the end of the force-feeding cycle, and the mortality rate for ducks raised on foie gras farms is among the highest in the farming industry. Necropsies performed on foie gras ducks have shown extreme obesity, impaction of undigested food in the esophagus, lacerations in the throat, and a proliferation of bacterial and fungal growth in their upper digestive tracts.

More information on foie gras can be found at:
http://www.nofoiegras.org/

The link below takes you to a page which has the link to the interview. So, it is in audio.

http://www.kpbs.org/radio/programs/these_days?id=6798

Dec 13, 2006

Tom Fudge: American cities are starting to get concerned about the things that we eat. New York has banned trans fats from restaurants. Chicago has banned foie gras. And now a San Diego City Council committee is talking about banning foie gras, or fattened goose liver.

Foie gras has been a target of animal rights groups for some time. They say the four-week process of force-feeding ducks and geese so that they develop a fatty liver is cruel. A group called the Animal Protection and Rescue League is lobbying for the ban in San Diego.