Seven years ago, the state of California enacted a law saying it would ban the manufacture and sale of foie gras on July 1, 2012. Now that it's less than a month away, Californians are trying to enjoy every last morsel.
The ban on the French delicacy, slabs of fattened livers from geese and ducks, began because the food was seen as inhumane. To create the cuisine, ducks and geese are force-fed using tubes, reports the Time website. This causes their livers to enlarge up to 10 times their usual size. Although a company called Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras was allowed to attempt a kinder way to create the dish, no other method has been found.
While some chefs are creating fois gras tasting menus, giving themselves and their customers a chance to get their fill before the ban takes effect, others are attempting to form a coalition and overturn the legislation.
In an article on the Grubstreet Chicago blog, an author explains that the ban is a mistake because, in part, "you may think it's only going to affect snobs and makes for good populist demagoguery, but remember that the only place in Chicago that actually got busted for serving foie was a hot dog stand. And... while making foie gras may or may not be all that humane, you're kidding yourself if you think the industrial chicken, pork or beef you eat is any kinder. A ban like this isn't about improving things for animals, it's about the satisfaction that the Cali-ban among you get when they deny somebody else pleasure."
Some gourmonds are on board with the spirit of the ban, however. Josiah Slone, a chef who recently hosted a fois gras dinner for 30 guests and educated the diners on the science process behind the dish, told the Huffington Post, "Foie gras was sort of an easy target, sort of low-hanging fruit. But in the sense of improving conditions of animal welfare, ending some of the factory farming practices that [Big Agriculture] is defending is a very admirable goal."
While fois gras is illegal in California, it's still available in other states. Not all meats are allowed, though. Horse meat and whale meat are both forbidden, as are shark fins and beluga caviar. Blowfish meat -- also called Pufferfish meat or Fugu -- is also illegal, possibly because it's deadly.
