waring -- about buskers in France. Yes, there is a test before you are allowed to play in the Paris metro. The RATP commission listens to the various musicians before giving them a license.

I've just learned that gold fishe's memory is 3 sec...so I do not feel bad about fish in a small tank anymore.
Maybe there is some fact about gees that is comforting like they love to be forcefed and having liver enlarged...if someone knows - please, post.

BTW I have tried that Foie Gras - i paid $17.00 per less then a LB and it tasted little discuisting to me, is there brand you can recommend?

One more point, from a lover of the English language and of foie gras. You may be incredulous, but I don't find it incredible at all that the French assembly would defend a part of their heritage.

I am not sure whether a study has ever been done on the pain that may be caused by the growth hormones used on U.S. fowl and cattle. As young human beings are often treated for the pain caused by bones growing faster than the joints (or is it the opposite?), I wouldn't find it hard to imagine that animals raised for food as fast as possible might also suffer from being pushed to maturity at an abnormal rate.

Growth hormones are forbidden in Europe, even in otherwise mistreated ducks and geese.

I think if Russians should take same measures about Borstch?

American animal welfare activists such as myself may need to join with American Iraq war supporters in their boycott of all things French! Talk about strange bedfellows...

I had a vegetarian friend who made an exception and ate chicken, on the basis that "they are technically vegetables"

On a visit to the Dordogne I had the chance to visit a goose farm. I was surprised at how quickly they were fed and then released. They did not appear stressed at all. And having seen geese raised naturally (they do tend to gulp things down) I am not sure that it would be painful for them, perhaps just uncomfortable.

"And having seen geese raised naturally (they do tend to gulp things down) I am not sure that it would be painful for them, perhaps just uncomfortable."

Doesn't matter. This is an issue which allows certain people to feel good about themselves and to despise others. That's what it's all about.

Toronto: I'm with you. Geese and ducks self-gorge naturally prior to migration. Their throats are not constructed like human throats; no gag reflex. I have visited the Dordogne goose farms also, and I do not believe the process to be inhumane, in fact, the geese are pretty pampered. However, I believe there are some more industrial foie gras facilities where the geese and/or ducks are not treated so well as on the small family farms. Just as in all production of meat for food -- it can be done humanely, or cruelly. Not choosing vegetarianism, I just try to choose my meats and poultry carefully.

In response to the Foie Gras haters, tell me why the KFC chickens are developed to grow quicker, grow that their feathers don't grow, which give us lovenly pigs more food to munch.

Aren't we also a bit similar to force feeding the geese, when we ask a 250 lb muncher if a "super size" family dinner is wanted. Using the advertisement surely is the same a stuffing the geese.

The gaver is only for 28 days but the 250 pounder has been super sizing for quite a few years.

But if there are any tourists around the South of France, December 6th has a big market for the fat livers "on the hoof". This is located in Castelnaudery (sp?). But, go early since there are a lot of hungry French ready to prepare their Christmas Foie Gras.

Blackduff

I suspect that the French General Assembly declared foie gras a national heritage precisely because the EU has a tendency to legislate items out of existence. It tried with soft ripening cheeses made of unpasteurized milk, and I would not be surprised if there were noises about force feeding geese and ducks. Declaring foie gras a national heritage may be a way of stopping the EU from legislating it out of existence.

A pedantic aside: for the person writing &quot;vive la foie gras&quot; it would be either <i>vive la foi grasse</i> (long live the fat faith) or <i>vive le foie gras</i> (long live fatted liver).

Hey I don't mind eating all kinds of animal parts, but I try to avoid deliberately diseased internal organ-parts.

unless you're a goose or a duck who has been force fed, trying to establish if that is cruel and unusual treatment is all a guess. it is well established that there is no pain or emotional stress from the liver itself being enlarged.

&quot;chicken... are technically vegetables&quot;

P. Theroux, in Oceania, says he's a vegatarian who eats fish. I find this utter hypocrisy. Fish have blood, etc. It's like people who say they don't eat red meat but eat chicken (do theey eat pork?)

Foies gras haters should focus on a larger issue - more humane raising of chickens and cows. Chickens have their head ripped off by machines before being &quot;processed&quot; - where is the out cry?

this thread makes me want to fly to Hungary for a week of foie gras indukgence - where's the sauterne?

I recently read an article about this in a British magazine, which stated that approximately 90% of foie gras is produced in industrial farms, where (like battery chickens) the birds are kept in cramped cages unable to move.

It would be nice to imagine that all foie gras is produced on farms like those described by other posters, where happy ducks and geese rush forward to be fed. However, as with any mass meat production, that seems pretty far from the truth.

Also, one argument that I find really odd is that ducks and geese gorge themselves anyway so the force feeding is simply following nature. Surely, if the animals really do gorge themselves of their own accord, why do they need to be force fed at all? Why not just give them unlimited amounts of food and let them get on with it?

I did a web search to find more info on this topic, but unfortunately it's very hard to find balanced information. Still, there are some interesting points raised here: http://www.stopgavage.com/filiere.php (in French).

Before I get slammed, I should probably mention that I do try to put my money where my mouth is, and don't (knowingly) buy or eat battery farmed chicken or meat, as I have no desire to support the industry. And though my husband loves foie gras, since he learned about the industrial production methods, he's sworn to buy only the stuff produced on small, free range farms (pretty hard to find in the shops, incidentally).

Carta Pisana, you're making some unfair assumptions. Many foie gras haters do rally against factory farms and slaughterhouses and the abuses that go on there. Why would you think otherwise? Certain organizations have been instrumental in getting the major purveyors of animal flesh, from fast food restaurants to grocery stores, to institute more humane standards in their slaughterhouses. Believe me, such organizations are fighting a hard battle against the well-funded meat producers, dog racers, cock fighters, etc...

People who refuse to adjust their behaviors incrementaly to more humane ones love to talk about the hypocrisy of others. As if anyone claims to be perfect. It's just an excuse to be lazy and selfish.

Rabo de Toro certainly is worse than the foie gras. Remember that this meal is from the tails of many fighting bulls. Getting 28 days of eating isn't anywhere near as bad as heading towards the bull ring.

Blackduff

I'll eat just about anything and I don't get hung up about supposed cruelty or any of that.
The fact is that its a grossly diseased organ that the French have somehow managed to convince people is fashionable to eat.
Might as well lick a stick of butter that somebody sneezed on.

&quot;The fact is that its a grossly diseased organ that the French have somehow managed to convince people is fashionable to eat&quot;

You are doing to much honour to the French. First of all, as some have said, it remains to be seen if forcefeeding creates &quot;grossly diseased&quot; organs, and, second, the thing has been known and practiced since ... the Egyptians. Its is also done in Hungary and Israel. But nobody would have the idea to criticise those countries.

As to the French National Assembly declaring such and such thing a &quot;national Heritage&quot;, even if the French ambassy bothers about it, well 99,99% of the French population couldn't care less about it. It's a total non-event here. There is nothing in the press.

Foie gras is nearly as unusual and exotic here as for those who bother to contribute to this thread. But a little French bashing around a few worn-out cliches never hurts...