A FLAP OVER FOIE GRAS

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[Newsweek - comments at full story link]CHEFS--AND DINERS--LOVE THE FATTY DUCK LIVER, BUT ANIMAL-RIGHTSACTIVISTS ARE CRYING FOWL AT THE BIRDS' TREATMENT....It was a delicacy among the Romans, and later the Jews, a substitutefor the pig that helped their Christian neighbors survive the MiddleAges. To French food writer Charles Gerard, foie gras--the swollenliver of a deliberately overfed goose or duck--was "the supreme fruitof gastronomy." Seared and doused with a port-wine reduction, or bakedwith truffles into a terrine, it is the key to the restaurantindustry's holy grail: the $20 appetizer. But to animal-rightsactivists, it's fur on a plate, an outrageous flaunting of humanity'sdominion over other species, and at the same time a wedge issue thatcan usefully be wielded against the entire meat industry.

Which iswhy, within an hour of Cardinal Ratzinger's elevation last week, anexultant e-mail went out from Bruce Friedrich, director of vegancampaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, callingmedia attention to the new pope's views on animal husbandry. In a 2002interview, Ratzinger opined that "degrading living creatures to acommodity," specifically by force-feeding geese and confining chickensin crowded factory-farm cages, seems "to contradict the relationshipof mutuality that comes across in the Bible." So perhaps monsieurwould prefer to substitute the poached leeks?...... Legislative efforts to ban the product are showing success.California, one of two states where ducks are raised for foie gras,has banned its production and sale, effective in 2012. The legislaturein New York is considering a bill that would phase out production,although it would not outlaw, for instance, chef

Kerry Heffernan's $17dish of seared foie gras with vanilla roasted pears and sauternescoulis (left) at Eleven Madison Park. "That will come later!" promisesFriedrich of PETA.-- full story:http://www.newsweek.com/id/51908