As a child I was always a picky eater and didn't really eat meat until college and beyond. When the methods of producing foie gras hit the news last week I kind of had an idea already how it went down having worked in restaurants for many years. I have never tried foie gras because quite frankly, duck or goose liver doesn't make me salivate in the first place. Not that I needed another reason to not eat it, but I would like to thank Doris Davis for her letter to the editor with her colorful and detailed description of the process the ducks and geese go through to get that fat juicy liver some of you all love so much. I hope the Statesman doesn't mind that I pasted it here for you to read...
Still hungry?
Re: June 13 article "What's good for the foie gras goose is being debated."
I was disappointed that the cruel methods used in foie gras production were not mentioned.
To produce the fatty liver, ducks and geese consume large amounts of food two or three times a day when a metal tube is forced down their throats, filling their stomachs to the point that food comes out of their mouths and noses.
This force-feeding expands the liver up to 10 times its normal size. Force-feeding can lead to inhalation of regurgitated feed and a slow, painful death by suffocation. Ducks and geese live in vomit-covered pens or cages barely bigger than their own bodies for three weeks while they are force-fed. Access to water is so limited that the ducks, unable to adequately clean the vomit, feces and mush from their nostrils and eyes often become blind.
All this to entice the palate of the restaurant diner.
DORIS DAVIS
Lakeway
Again, thank you Ms. Davis for making sure I never eat foie gras. But can you please not write in about hamburgers? I love a good burger and I'm not ready to give those up yet.
1 comment:
Ahhh, the things people will do for their fine foods. I just stick to mac and cheese, I'm pretty sure no animals are harmed in the making of that item. Bread is pretty safe too
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