Foie Gras or Faux Pas? by Kathy Newman
Table of Contents:
II. The Facts Behind Foie Gras
The increased worldwide production of foie gras has created a tremendous amount of controversy in recent years, particularly in Europe. Many European consumers and activist groups have taken issue with force-feeding, the method currently used to produce the delicacy. In order to produce foie gras, ducks and geese are force-fed a diet “composed mainly of grains” (7). The “resultant overfeed” causes “fatty accumulation in the liver” which is the foie gras, or “fatty liver” (7). Many European activists and concerned consumers disprove of this practice, describing it as cruel and detrimental to animal welfare. Their condemnation of force feeding has, on the policy level, already resulted in a considerable amount of legislation in Europe. General animal welfare laws designed to protect farm animals from any “unnecessary pain, suffering, or injury,” in particular, have become more and more prevalent in Europe as foie gras production has intensified (10). Nowhere is the controversy greater than it is in France and Hungary. In France, the biggest market for foie gras in the world, the delicacy is considered a symbol of French culture and identity. In Hungary, the production and exportation of foie gras is more an issue of economics--of Hungary finding its niche in Western European markets--than an issue of identity, probably because Hungary began to produce and export foie gras mainly in response to the increased demand for it in France. Foie gras is not just produced in France and Hungary though. It is a highly sought after commodity all throughout Europe with many countries participating in its production and consumption.
While there is a major public demand for improvements in animal welfare in Europe today, some EU member states, particularly France and Hungary, are unwilling to phase out the current method of force-feeding if that means producing less for more (2). Thus, while consumers and various lobbying organizations represent an impressive force in the fight against foie gras, French and Hungarian foie gras producers will not back down and have actually toughened their stance. Still though, many European countries have legislation banning the practice of force-feeding. Such legislation is grounded in science and is usually based on reports from the European Union Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare. In six of the nine provinces of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Finland, and Norway, the law explicitly bans the force feeding of ducks and geese for foie gras production (1). While the law does not explicitly ban the practice in Holland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, the general animal welfare laws in these countries work to prohibit it (1). Significantly, Israel, the world's fourth largest producer of foie-gras, “banned the production of the delicacy on the grounds of cruelty, declaring that force-feeding ran counter to animal protection laws” (1). While “the EU has not ruled definitively” that force-feeding will be made illegal, legislators in Brussels, considered the de facto capital of the EU, have nonetheless given farmers fifteen years to “find alternative methods,” “the implication being that any producer not using more humane methods at the end of that time would face the prospect of being banned" (6). Such a move, however, would undoubtedly be met with “fierce opposition” from farmers in Hungary and consumers in France (6).
II. The Facts Behind Foie Gras
Despite the increased passage of animal welfare laws in Europe, worldwide foie gras production has been increasing dramatically in recent years, especially in France and Hungary (5). This increase is attributed to the fact that more than 90% of birds kept for foie gras production today are ducks, which are significantly cheaper to keep and feed than are geese (4). This increase is also attributed to the fact that close to 80% of ducks raised for foie gras production are kept in individual cages (11). Trapped in these cages, factory farmers are able to "grab the ducks head, force its beak open, and push down a tube, which is attached to a pneumatic pump," quickly and without too much difficulty (11). In this way, factory farmers are able to inject a “half a kilo of feed down a ducks throat in just two to three seconds,” swelling the ducks liver between six and ten times its normal size in just three weeks (11). Factory farmers are able to feed more than a thousand birds in less than an hour through force-feeding. The factory system has therefore lowered production costs and raised production levels by more than 100% over the past ten years (11).
Some foie gras producers argue that because geese do not chew their food and have no gag reflex, they “do not find the method of force-feeding uncomfortable” (10). Further, they argue that since geese keep vast amounts of food and energy in their liver before migrating great distances, they are just making use of their “biological abilities.” However, expert veterinarians for the EU Scientific Animal Health and Welfare Committee argue that “there is no comparison between what nature does…and the extreme which force feeding represents for the organism. At the end of this process the birds are…incapable of making the smallest effort, which is in total contradiction to the aim of the natural process” (5).
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| Ducks raised for foie gras production are confined individually in cages so small they can barely move. (11) | A pneumatic pump literally forces "half a kilo of feed down a duck's throat in two or three seconds." (11) | On the left is a normal size duck liver. On the right, is the liver of a duck force-fed for up to three weeks. (11) |
Foie gras is big business in France, which produces somewhere between 80 and 85 percent of the 16,850 tonnes of foie gras made worldwide each year (5). Foie gras production is so concentrated in France that it is reported that about 24 million ducks and half a million geese are killed annually for the country’s foie gras industry alone (8). Foie gras is mainly produced in the southwest of France and, as a result, close to 90% of the people involved in the industry reside in the Perigord and Midi-Pyrenees regions of France (10).
As well as being the world’s leading producer and exporter to nearly 100 countries (“456 tonnes of preparations containing more than 75% foie gras were exported from France in 1998”), France also imports more foie gras than any other nation (5). In 1998, France imported 2,362 tonnes of all foie gras produced worldwide (5). Just to give a better idea of how big the foie gras business is in France, the industry employed—both directly and indirectly--a whopping 30,000 people in 1998! (4). Foie gras is not only big business in France though--it is also a symbol of French culture, even in spite of the recent controversy in Europe concerning animal welfare.
Despite widespread international concern about cruelty to animals during its production, French politicians have recently approved a draft law which declared foie gras "part of the cultural and gastronomic patrimony, protected in France" (3). This measure, which was “part of a sweeping bill on overall agricultural policy,” has effectively given foie gras the kind of protection in France that it was denied in 13 other European Union member states (3). It is therefore significant that the amendment to raise foie gras to the realm of French cultural heritage was “passed unanimously…before the entire draft law was voted” (3). The amendment, which named foie gras an "emblematic element of [France's] gastronomy and culture," may have been adopted in order to counter campaigns made by defenders of animal rights and keep the practice of force-feeding alive (12). Certainly, by legislating the amendment, French policy makers have made a statement—that the French will not give up foie gras without a fight! Thus, while the movement to abolish force-feeding has gained momentum around the world in recent years, France has responded by toughening its stance and fighting to protect what they consider to be the "most emblematic of Gallic culinary delicacies" (12).
Perhaps one reason why French people have been so overwhelmingly in favor of protecting foie gras is because they perceive it as somehow symbolic of their European identity. After all, France has been at the center of world foie gras production and consumption for centuries. In the sixteenth century, maize was introduced to the southwest of France, leading to the development of the industry that we know today, in which geese are “force fed a mixture of maize, fat, and salt” (5). In the eighteenth century, pate de foie gras was invented, which only increased production, further fueling the industry (5). Today, thanks to industrial intensification, foie gras has become widely available in France (11). Increased availability of the once expensive delicacy has made foie gras accessible, not just to a small segment of the population, but to a much wider and more diverse group of people in France (11). Today, 40% of French people eat foie gras at least once a year, and, on average, on approximately 10 occasions a year (5). With the industry now encouraging people to eat foie gras on occasions other than Christmas and New Year, and with a greater percentage of “normal commercial restaurants” now serving the delicacy, foie gras is even more accessible today than ever before (4). Thus, despite France’s long tradition of foie gras consumption, only now has it truly become a tradition for a greater portion of French people.
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| The average French person eats foie gras "at least ten times a year." The delicacy is especially popular during the French Christmas season. (5) |
Even though France is already the biggest producer of foie gras in the world, domestic producers have been unable to meet the demand for foie gras. As a result of this “French deficit,” France has grown more reliant on imports, especially on imports from Hungary (6). In this way, Hungary has become one of the world’s biggest exporters of foie gras with 1,800 tonnes sold abroad each year, mostly to France, but also to Japan and Belgium (9). Hungarians mainly export foie gras raw (9). In France, companies “spice, process, or cook” foie gras imported from Hungary in “a variety of ways,” then either consume it themselves or “sell it on to third countries as a ‘French’ product” (9). To keep this business alive, approximately 30,000 Hungarian geese farmers are involved in the production and export of foie gras (9). These farmers completely depend on the industry to make their living. Thus, it is no wonder why Hungarian farmers are on the defensive, especially when confronted by angry animal activists who condemn foie gras, particularly the the method of force-feeding. In response to animal activist groups, Hungarian farmers argue that force feeding as an "almost natural process" (9). Since geese migrate “several thousand kilometers and keep their reserves of food and energy in their liver,” they contend that geese are "just making use of their biological abilities" (9). As Hungary is second only to France in total production terms, any move to put an end to the practice of force-feeding would have devastating effects on the economy of one of the EU’s newest member states.
Europe has been seriously engaged in discussions on animal welfare ever since changes in production methods dramatically increased foie gras production across the world. This increased production led the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare, at the request of the European Commission, to publish an eighty page report in 1998 on the force-feeding of geese and ducks and the production of foie gras. The issue of force-feeding and of the production of foie gras has continued to be a controversial one today because many European countries, particularly France and Hungary, are wholly invested in the foie gras industry. France, as was discussed before, is the world’s biggest market for foie gras and France’s history of foie gras consumption and production dates all the way back to the Middle Ages, making foie gras “not just a familiar ingredient, but an intricate part of the historical and cultural heritage of the people” (6). Further, Hungary is one of the biggest exporters of foie gras in the entire world and is depended upon by France to satisfy consumer demand for the delicacy, which is increasing by the day. Thus, concern for animal welfare and the desire for improvement in methods of foie gras production may not be enough to phase out force-feeding, at least not if producers—and some consumers--in France and Hungary have anything to do with it.
Despite fierce opposition in France and Hungary, however, many EU member states have concluded that, based on the data presented in the Scientific Committee’s report, “the force feeding of ducks and geese should stop and that this could best be achieved by the prohibition of the production, importation, distribution, and sale of foie gras”(4). An EU-wide ban of foie gras in the near future would undoubtedly have a major impact on the industry in France and Hungry. The business in Hungary, for instance, one of the EU’s newest member states, could suffer greatly if it does not comply with future EU regulations. Foie gras is not just produced in France and Hungary, though, but in many other countries in Europe. As a result, producers in other European countries are facing the same challenges that producers in France and Hungary are. One challenge that most producers of foie gras face is producers in third-countries who manage to find and implement more humane methods of producing foie gras. If producers don't follow suit, they risk losing a significant amount of business since consumers are becoming increasingly aware of and concerned about issues of animal welfare (4). Thus, as long as consumers remain concerned about animal welfare, it is safe to assume that the foie gras industry in Europe, particularly in France and Hungary, will continue to face considerable challenges.
(1) A Farm Sanctuary Campaign, "About Foie Gras," http://www.nofoiegras.org/FGabout.htm (11/22/05)
(2) A Farm Sanctuary Campaign, "Laws/Policies," http://www.nofoiegras.org/FGlaws_EU.htm (11/22/05)
(3) Al Jazeera, "Culture: French give foie gras heritage status," October 18 2005, http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E313CF6E-C710-44EB-BC78-E5995329CEE9.htm (11/22/05)
(4) French Animal Rights League, "Critical Analysis of the Report of the Scientific Committee on Welfare Aspects of the Production of foie gras in Ducks and Geese," http://league-animal-rights.org/en-rapport_foiegras.html (11/21/05)
(5) McKenna, Carol, Advocates for Animals and World Society for the Protection of Animals, "Forced feeding An inquiry into the welfare of ducks and geese kept for the production of foie gras," February 2000, http://www.advocatesforanimals.org.uk/pdf/FoieGras.pdf (11/22/05)
(6) Meat Process.com, "EU accession threatens foie gras production," January 16 2004, http://www.meatprocess.com/news/ng.asp?id=49118-eu-accession-threatens (11/22/05)
(7) Moynagh, J., "EU Regulation and Consumer Demand for Animal Welfare," 2000, http://www.agbioforum.org/v3n23/v3n23a06-moynagh.htm (11/21/05)
(8) Nish, Wayne, "Understanding Foie Gras," December 1994/ January 1995, http://www.hudsonvalleyfoiegras.com/finecooking.html (11/22/05)
(9) Thorpe, Nick, BBC News, "Hungary Foie Gras Farms Under Threat," January 12 20004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3346185.stm (11/21/05)
(10) Wikipedia, "Foie Gras," November 20 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras (11/22/05)
(11) World Society for the Protection of Animals, "Forced Feeding - the facts behind foie gras production," http://www.wspa.org.uk/index.php?page=179 (11/22/05)
(12) Buzzle.com, “France Defies EU to Continue Force-Feeding Birds for Foie Gras,” September 17, 2004, http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-17-2004-59424.asp (11/28/05)
