July 1st was the last night that California restaurants could legally sell Foie Gras. If you are not familiar with Foie Gras, a French delicacy involving the enlarged liver of a duck or goose, feel free to do some research. Needless to say, the amount of food being fed to these animals is far more than they would ever eat in the wild or domestically.
As expected, the Californian chefs are finding loopholes around the law so that they can continue to serve the delicacy. The law forbids the selling or producing of products in California made from force-fed ducks or geese, but does not address consuming, possessing or transporting the product. Chefs have thought to offer the Foie Gras as a free accompaniment to an expensive side dish or wine.
California’s only Foie Gras producer, Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras, is closing which means that the restaurants who are daring enough to keep Foie Gras on their menu will have to have it imported. From who?
From other states such as our very own New Jersey. Ariane Daguin, founder of Foie Gras vendor D’Artagnan, based in Newark, is under the impression that it will be legal for customers to continue to order Foie Gras from her company online. With all of the press surrounding this, including PETA, what kind of reputation will this give New Jersey? Personally, I think that it will not make a huge difference since New Jersey is not its only supplier. While New Jersey will be supplying the forbidden food it is California that is truly doing the dirty work. PETA may be upset by this but in this whole situation New Jersey is not breaking any laws. The main focus will remain on the California restaurants that are bending the rules in order to continue to serve the force fed animals. This is only the beginning so we will be keeping an eye on this topic to see how things pan out.
