You are here: Liverpool Confidential › The Vote.
Yes: | ![]() ![]() |
No: | ![]() ![]() |
MOST people would consider the liver to be a throw-away part of an animal, prizing the other cuts more. But in the case of foie gras, everything is centered around cultivating and coddling the fatty liver, while the rest of the duck or goose is considered the throw-away product.
The consumption of foie gras has long been a contentious issue, because it is obtained by force-feeding ducks and geese through tubes inserted into their throats. Animal rights activists say the process is painful and distressing for the birds. Production has already been banned in Britain, and whilst most supermarkets have stopped stocking foie gras, restaurants are still allowed to import it from abroad.
The controversy remains, with animal activists constantly lobbying their MPs and some resorting to violent, anonymous protests, targeting shops and restaurants that stock it. Eating foie gras has become more than an animal cruelty issue. It has gone as far back to the old debate of eating animals in the first place.
The recent vandalism of a Cheshire restaurant proves that the liver issue is not about to go away. 39 Steps Restaurants in Styal saw six windows
smashed and the words ‘foie gras’ scrawled on the walls. The owners have now removed the dish from the menu "to protect customers and staff".
Confidential's very own Gordo has spoken out against the protests. He said: “Anonymous violent protest is hugely cowardly and ineffectual. It's wrong even if the cause was for say, poverty and children's health. You make a stand - you're either going to eat animal produce or you be a vegetarian. But don't force your opinion on someone else. I will not push a vegan down and force feed them rump steak.”
He says that the production of foie gras has become a symbol of the French wife's independence, saying they worked with geese in this way as far as 250 years ago in Gascony, the home of foie gras.
So vegetarians and meat eaters alike, what do you think? Should restaurants still serve foie gras or should it be erased from our gastronomical consciousness once and for all? Vote on the Homepage.
Like what you see? Enter your email to sign up for our newsletters which are chock-a-block with more great reviews, news, deals and savings.
9 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
Voting is irrelevant if it comes down to money, no one seems to know what is important art, culture…
Read moreDid you do applications in the same elegant and well composed style you've used here?
Read morewatch next time you see the government in parliament on telly, some are asleep and some are pissed
Read moreif the muppets in downing street stop shutting firms down there would be plenty of jobs. ive…
Read more
Foie Gras tastes of nothing anyway. Shiphams paste has got more flavour. So animals die in agony for something which tastes of nothing???
Surely old man you mean that foie gras tastes like nothing else!
Can you get foie gras in Liverpool yet?
My blood is boiling
I always thought all foie gras was produced in this way - force feeding geese via a funnel - but I watched a programme recently about a farm in the UK that is producing ethically farmed foie gras. I don't know if that's a contradiction in terms in their feeding regime but they didn't mention anything about force feeding - unless of course they didn't want to admit it. It seems to me that surely it's a matter of supply and demand and if people didn't buy this product, there would be no market for it and the practice would end. Is that too simple?In any case SOMEONE must like it and must be buying it whether it is from this country or from France. Like I have stated previously it IS obviously being produced here too. Is the production of veal any better than foie gras?
I've had foie gras in The Mal. If production is banned in Britain why was it on their local & homegrown menu? Although when I ate it I was ignorant as to how it was produced. I won't be eating it again. It do find it an unecessary & cruel delicacy. It wouldn't be missed in the same way our staple meats would.
I have only just fully realised what this is, i think it's hideous and barbaric - it should be banned immediately, there is no need for animal suffering in this way.
Appalling! Ugh
It is a delicacy. we are talking about a duck for heavens sake not a child!Tis just an animal for food, who cares how its raised?The special taste is preserved by restricting movement, thus ensuring every mouthful of pate is full of flavour.In some areas of Southern France, farmers to this day actually nail the feet of the best ducks to wooden planks to completely restrict movement and promote fuller flavour.Grow up its a duck, it is there to be eaten.