A Foie Gras Debate?

Posted on 2 April 2007 under Food In The News, Rants

I’m going out on a serious limb here. Back on March 23rd I wrote on how I was “Sorely disappointed in Chef Wolfgang Puck” due to his decision to remove foie gras from his menus. What I’ve found is that someone else on BlogsMonroe.com disagrees with me in a huge way. Of course, it may be that Dr. Lisa Whiting, DVM, author of the Pet Talk blog here on BlogsMonroe.com wrote about how much she supports Chef Wolfgang’s decision just four days later on March 27th is simply a coincidence.

So I have to be careful here. Willingly careful. Not only do I have a whole lot of respect for our resident veterinarian, but I’m coming fresh off a week of not blogging, both in support of women’s views on the internet, and the simple fact that I believe everyone’s opinions do have merit that can be discussed in a healthy manner, not detrimental to anyone involved.

Yup, this is one of those times people can get really torqued off. I’m going to do my level best to avoid that while making my points about this issue. Why? Because it’s how people should act, both in real life and on the web.

Back in my original post I’d said that if anone wants to discuss the foie gras issue, they should read some of Chef Anthony Bourdain’s books first.

I definitely disagree with Dr. Whiting about foie gras. I’ll just go ahead and lay it all out right here, defering to Bourdain when necessary. Gently now, gently …

Skipping the introductory paragraph, Dr. Whiting begins with this:

So, with the pressure from the protests, (Chef Wolfgang) decided to become “more socially responsible”. He contacted the Humane Society of the United States and developed a menu that ensures that the chickens were housed cage free, the calves were able to roam before becoming veal, and the lobsters have been removed from the crowded holding tanks as quickly as possible. His restaurants will only serve seafood that is sustainable instead of destroying the worlds populations of “tasty” fish. 

Unfortunately, that’s not what was originally reported by the Associated Press. From their article,

“He said he wasn’t [emphasis mine] responding to pressure from animal welfare advocates, but instead believes the best-tasting food comes from animals that have been treated humanely … Puck’s chefs will continue to kill lobsters by cutting them in half while they’re still alive, rather than by using stun guns. And stingray-like skate and Russian caviar, both of which are on an ‘avoid’ list compiled by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, remain on his menus.” 

Well, that’s odd … 

Dr. Whiting then gets into the production of foie gras, and other foods in general:

In my mind, the people of the United States, especially those living in the cities, need to become more informed about the food they eat.  Children have no concept of what “meat” is and where it comes from.

I certainly agree with this. This in itself is something I firmly believe should actually be taught in schools. Kids and farms used to be one-in-the-same. But with the demise of the family farm, and the fact that 4-H, the Future Farmer’s of America, and similar groups aren’t as popular anymore, no one learns this information. It’s a real necessity!

Here’s why I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Whiting on this part. From Chef Anthony Bourdain’s brutal bestseller “A Cook’s Tour” comes this amazing paragraph on this same subject:

Understand this about me - and about most chefs, I’m guessing: For my entire professional career, I’ve been like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part II, ordering up death over the phone, or with a nod or a glance. When I want meat, I make a call, or I give my sous-chef, my butcher, or my charcutier a look and they make the call. On the other end of the line, my version of Rocco, Al Neary, or Lucca Brazzi either does the job himself or calls someone else who gets the thing done. Sooner or later, somewhere - whether in the Midwest, or upstate New York, or on a farm in rural Pennsylvania, or as far away as Scotland - something dies. Every time I have picked up the phone or ticked off an item on my order sheet, I have basically caused a living thing to die. What arrives in my kitchen, however, is not the bleeding, still-warm body of my victim, eyes open, giving me an accusatory look that says, “Why me, Tony? Why me?” I don’t have to see that part. The only evidence of my crimes is the relatively antiseptic boxed or plastic-wrapped appearance of what is inarguably meat. I had never, until I arrived in Portugal, had to look my victim in the face - much less watched at close range - as he was slaughtered, disemboweled, and broken down into constituent parts. It was only fair, I figured, that I should have to watch as the blade went in. I’d been vocal, to say the least, in my advocacy of meat, animal fat, and offal. I’d said some very unkind things about vegetarians. Let me find out what we’re all talking about, I thought. I would learn - really learn - where food actually comes from.

If you have a weak stomach, a large portion of Chef Tony’s book is not for you. But yes, you should know where your food comes from. Got it? Good.

With foie gras, though, I’m afraid Dr. Whiting doesn’t know the real facts. She writes:

Before ordering foie gras, a person should know not only what it is, but how it is produced.  Thousands and thousands of geese have a feeding tube shoved down their throats (often times tearing it and causing death), and are forcefully pumped with a high fat gruel.  This is done many times a day until the liver is filled with fat and can no longer function as a bodily organ.  Before the geese die of liver failure, they are killed and the fat filled liver is harvested for foie gras.  Sound appetizing? 

The above statement from Dr. Whiting actually contradicts what the American Veterinary Medical Associations reports:

Dr. (Walter K.) McCarthy … presented what he considered facts about foie gras production to correct what he said are misperceptions. In contrast with what some critics claim, he said that the esophagus of the birds used for foie gras is lined with a cornified epithelium, “a very tough esophagus that can accept a great deal of abuse.” … He said it is very elastic and pliable, so the birds can swallow a huge amount of fish or grain. The birds don’t appear to be anxious around the persons feeding them, he said, and mortality is much less than at most agricultural facilities …”The people who have actually seen these facilities are the ones you should listen to,” he added … On July 5, (Dr. Robert P. Gordon) visited a farm in New York. “After being on the premises, my position changed dramatically,” Dr. Gordon said. “I did not see animals I would consider distressed, and I didn’t see pain and suffering.” He said it is more distressing to take a rectal temperature in a cat …

I only wonder here how often Dr. Whiting and other veterinarians takes such a temperature. Ouch …

The article continues: 

Instead of the term force-feeding, Dr. Gordon advocated tube feeding, a term he noted is used in veterinary medicine. Dr. Susan L. Clubb, alternate delegate for the Association of Avian Veterinarians, said that some owners feed psittacines via tube. Their esophagus easily accepts a tube without stress, she said, and it would seem logical that the same would be true in birds used to produce foie gras … Delegates had differing views, however, on whether a disease process is induced. Dr. McCarthy, for example, insisted that the practice isn’t part of a pathologic process, and Dr. (James M.) Harris said it is a physiologic not a pathologic process. Nebraska delegate, Dr. Theodore Evans Jr., pointed out that feeding enriched diets in cattle is an existing practice that also induces diseases such as laminitis, acidosis, and fatty liver.

I don’t see anywhere where any of these delegates refered to the animals as being “forcefully pumped”. 

One of the more telling statements in the entire American Veterinary Medical Association article is this:

“We cannot condemn an accepted agricultural practice on … emotion,” Dr. McCarthy said. 

Hear, hear.

In her blog, Dr. Whiting continues with this: 

When you ordered veal, did you know that the newborn calves were on short chains, (to prevent movement), in total darkness to keep the muscles white and tender? Still interested in the veal Parmesan? 

The American Veterinary Medical Association also includes the following in the same article on foie gras:

Dr. McCarthy said that if the New York Veterinary Medical Society were to oppose foie gras production, its veterinarians would fully expect opposition to methods used to produce veal calves and other livestock to follow. Referring to the positions proposed by the resolutions, he said that opponents of production agriculture could easily propose modifications to those positions that would make them applicable to other stock.

In other words, where will all this end? Given the number of bans gearing up on various ingredients, it won’t. Making these decisions based on emotion and a lack of true facts is simply irresponsible.

Dr. Whiting begins to close: 

Know what you are eating, and make sure your conscience can handle the truth. If more people would learn what food is, and how it is produced, they would not allow the inhumane treatment of these animals. It isn’t necessary, and it never was. Just cheap and convenient.

Now, I’ll certainly agree that some aspects of farming, especially factory farms and the like, should not be allowed. But the facts are important. Fois gras dates back thousands of years. It’s nothing new. And it’s certainly not “cheap and convenient”.

Dr. Whiting’s closing sentences:

We have come too far to allow these practices to continue. I applaud Chef Puck for taking the time to learn about the origins of food and his effort to serve only the best.

Again, from the Associated Press article:

Puck’s chefs will continue to kill lobsters by cutting them in half while they’re still alive, rather than by using stun guns.

As the man bows to pressure from those without the real facts, modifying some dishes to pacify an angry mob, but not other dishes, and certainly not standing up for the truth.

What “angry mob” am I talking about? In “The Nasty Bits”, Chef Tony Bourdain really makes one wonder why Chef Wolfgang made this particular decision about foie gras. The real possibility of the “pressure” involved is downright frightening:

A supposedly underground group of fanatical animal rights activists has apprently decided that Chef Laurent Manrique’s pint-size specialty store, Sonoma Saveurs, must be restrained - by an means necessary - from selling foie gras. To this end, they broke into the adobe structure, spray-painted walls and equipment, destroyed the plumbing with cement, pumped water throughout - thereby damaging two neighboring businesses as well - vandalized Manrique’s home, doused his car with acid, and threatened him in phone calls and letters … More unforgivably, they have sent Manrique a videotape, surreptitiously filmed from his yard, of his wife and two-year-old child in their home, with a letter warning they were being watched … this is indefensible, atrocious, and portentous of bad things to come. Already, chefs Traci Des Jardins of Jardiniere and Charlie Trotter have made the craven and all-too expedient decision to remove foie gras from their menus, not only knuckling under at the first whiff of opposition, but turning their backs on their peers and their profession when their support is needed most.

This is nothing to applaud, Dr. Whiting. Rather, this is something to be seriously appalled at.

Chef Tony continues:

I have seen foie gras being produced, the ducks and geese being fed in identical fashion to the way Manrique’s suppliers do it. The animals are not bolted to a board. At mealtime, they are summoned or gently prodded, by the same feeder each day, and held between his legs. Their heads are tilted back and a long funnel is introduced into their mouths and down their throats. About a handful of feed is ground in a mill and poured into their stomachs. They do not generally struggle. Often, free of physical encouragement, they come when summoned. Certainly it is not pretty. Watching the process causes an instinctive awareness of the gag reflex … It is, no doubt, cruelty of a sort. If any time discomfort is inflicted on another living thing defines the word, then that’s what it is. But in the full spectrum of cruelty and horror in this wide world - and even in our own neighborhoods - there is far, far worse …

… Burglary, destruction of property, and extortion are all felonies. Acting as a group, in concert, in an ongoing criminal enterprise - as these hateful and hating people inarguably have - amounts to racketeering. I dearly hope, pour décourager les autres, that when they are caught, they are tried and convicted under federal RICO conspiracy statutes and spend the rest of their lives eating prison turkey loaf. And I offer my support and my sympathy to Laurent Manrique, a great chef, a good man, and a proud Gascon.

Why did Chef Wolfgang really make this decision? Was it his own decision, as the Associated Press claims? Or was it something much worse, something extremely terrifying?

We may never know. And frankly, we may all end up being leary of the true answer.

This past Friday in their Comm-oddities blog, the CBC reported a hot dog vendor in Chicago was fined $250 for selling hot dogs with foie gras, long after the sale of foie gras was banned in that city. According to the article, “Doug Sohn, who runs Hot Doug’s Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium, said he has been serving hot dogs with foie gras since the ordinance took effect in August 2006.” The article also says this:

The ban was sponsored by a Chicago’s city alderman, who objected to the way the delicacy is created … The alderman was supported by animal rights activists, who have been pressing other cities, states and chefs for similar bans.

“(S)upported by animal rights activists” … probably the same people, the ones Bourdain has labeled “food terrorists”, who ripped up the Sanoma Saveur. Long after Al Capone, another type of organization has Chicago in its pocket.

All this because some geese and ducks get too much to eat.

This is why I’m still “Sorely disappointed in Chef Wolfgang Puck“.

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