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Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

nytimes.com

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Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#21

Post by donw »

pentae wrote: post #6
sneak wrote: post #3

> Under the law, it will be assumed that all foie gras came from duck or geese that have been force-fed unless “documentary” evidence is provided to the contrary. Guilty until proven innocent seems to be the general trend in NYC these days.

Or maybe lawmakers are just tired of seeing loopholes abused by unscrupulous people. It's like banning shark fin, it just gets taken off the menu but can be ordered in mandarin.

That may not be the best analogy.

If shark fin is illegal, then being able to order it in Mandarin isn't a "loophole" -- it doesn't magically become legal on a technicality.

It's just a means of avoiding enforcement of the law, by making the illicit activity less obvious.

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#22

Post by anovikov »

I enjoy foie gras and i happily live in a place where it's unlikely to be banned in my lifetime. No nation which has only recently turned to service economy from agriculture-driven economy and most population grew in the countryside, will do it, because they know and readily accept that all agriculture is the torture of animals or it just doesn't pay for itself. Also, it's just tasty.

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#23

Post by asjw »

praptak wrote: post #19
CaptainZapp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you eat meat at all? If so, how were the animals raised, slaughtered and processed? This ban seems rather hypocritical to me given the atrocities happening in mass meat production. While there are absolutely terrible things happening in Foie Gras production (I would never, ever buy any products from Hungary, as a for example) the really good stuff is raised quite humanely.[1] To me this just looks like an attempt…

It's just a step in the right direction.

What is the right direction?

Right by which metric?

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#24

Post by donw »

sneak wrote: post #3

> Under the law, it will be assumed that all foie gras came from duck or geese that have been force-fed unless “documentary” evidence is provided to the contrary. Guilty until proven innocent seems to be the general trend in NYC these days.

I don't think it is entirely unfair that restaurants be required to prove origin when challenged, especially for commonly counterfeited ingredients.

Let's say that I go to a restaurant that claims they only use true cinnamon and Kashmir saffron to flavor a cinnamon roll, which they sell at a premium because of the high-quality ingredients.

When challenged, that restaurant needs to be able to show proof that they are delivering as advertised.

If it turns out that they were instead using artificial flavors and colors, then they are guilty of fraud, and the punishment should be scaled to the difficulty of detecting infraction.

Similarly, if a restaurant claims to be selling humanely-sourced shark fin (not even sure how that works, but let's roll with it), and can't substantiate that claim, then there does need to be some kind of punishment for deceiving their customers.

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#25

Post by seanwilson »

cm2187 wrote: post #11
simonblack wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came here to say the same thing. But it reads much better in the original French.

I can’t help thinking that this has little to do with foie gras, but is part of wider push by vegetarians to ban meat eating. You could argue that an animal had a bad time for any meat.

> push by vegetarians to ban meat eating

Milk and egg production still involve animals being killed for meat though e.g. female diary cows are killed for meat when they stop producing enough milk after a few years and males from diary cows are killed within a month of being born as veal.

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#26

Post by erk__ »

asjw wrote: post #23
praptak wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a step in the right direction.

What is the right direction? Right by which metric?

Right by the metric of geese getting fed with a pipe is likely to go down, even though it is probably negligible on a worldwide scale.

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#27

Post by dvdbloc »

jeswin wrote: post #13
cm2187 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t help thinking that this has little to do with foie gras, but is part of wider push by vegetarians to ban meat eating. You could argue that an animal had a bad time for any meat.

> You could argue that an animal had a bad time for any meat. One could certainly make a case for banning animal slaughter, but I suppose it would be practical only after we have good meat substitutes. But in the meantime we could perhaps ban wanton cruelty such as Foie Gras. I'll add veal too to the list now.

I’m not taking a stance on either side here but how can you make this case when animals are killing other animals all the time for food? Or is the case that humans are “above animals” in that we don’t slaughter anything?

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#29

Post by praptak »

asjw wrote: post #23
praptak wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a step in the right direction.

What is the right direction? Right by which metric?

Decrease in animal suffering. I was referring to GP critique of this move as not big enough.

Re: Foie Gras, Served in 1k Restaurants in NYC, Is Banned

#30

Post by asjw »

etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #2

Well foie gras was a horrifying thing to learn about! This seems hard to excuse.

Oh come on!

I never ate foie gras and I hate french cuisine, but I hate more people believing anything they read on the internet without having any prior knowledge of the topic.

Foie gras is much less horrifying than the existence of Google and Facebook, the amount of plastic in the oceans or the pile of toxic waste produced by disposable tech.

It's just a fancy traditional regional food that's not even mass produced.

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