California Chefs to Wield Their Spatulas in Fight Over Foie Gras Ban [View all]
Source: New York Times
A collection of some of California’s best-known chefs, including four-star celebrities like Thomas Keller, began a full-course press on the state’s legislators on Monday, hoping to prevent a long-simmering ban on foie gras from taking effect on July 1.
The group, which calls itself the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards, delivered a charter statement to lawmakers in Sacramento, advocating a wide variety of new animal-friendly commitments, including cage-free birds and hand feeding, to replace the current law, which would effectively bar foie gras from the state’s menus.
“We want to create a humane market,” said Rob Black, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a member of the coalition. “Not a black market.”
The ban would prohibit the production and sale of any product derived from force feeding birds to enlarge their livers beyond normal size — the only way to mass produce the fatty French-inflected delicacy. The law was passed in 2004 but had a seven-and-a-half-year grace period. It is the nation’s first such law to pass.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/us/california-chefs-fight-states-foie-gras-ban.html
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