Veggie Foie Gras Delivered from Belgium to Hollande
A Belgian animal welfare organization has sent the French president, François Hollande, samples of a vegetarian alternative to foie gras, the delicacy made from the fatty livers of ducks or geese.
“I am very happy to offer you a box of faux gras, a delicious vegetarian alternative to foie gras, which is cooked with truffles and Champagne. It is sold in most of Belgium’s supermarkets with sales reaching 160,000 jars a year," wrote Michel Vandenbosch, in a letter to Hollande.
Vandenbosch is president of Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA), based in Brussels. The organization says that sales of GAIA Faux Gras increased by 433 percent between 2009 and 2011, proving "there is no need to make an animal sick to entice the taste buds of gourmets."
In his letter to Hollande, Vandenbosch claimed that “the saved duck population approved” of this alternative to foie gras – a product that has recently been banned from sale and production in California. The letter stressed that the force-feeding of ducks caused many health problems for the bird, including liver failure and injury to the oesophagus.
GAIA underlined the fact that European regulations forbid any practices that “are sources of pain, anxiety or disease for ducks.” However, France and other foie gras-producing countries have been given an exemption by authorities while they find other means of fattening up the birds. "As yet, France has done nothing to meet this demand,” GAIA claims.
In addition, the French vegetarian group L214 has written an open letter to Hollande denouncing the force-feeding of caged birds, along with a DVD exposing the methods used by foie gras farmers in southwest France. L214 has called for a meeting between animal welfare groups and Hollande to discuss foie gras production.
- AFP with Wine Searcher staff
Related links:
Hollande weighs in our Foie Gras Brouhaha
Tit for Tat over Foie Gras Ban
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Nico, if you think abusing and torturing innocent animals who have no voice is "trivial," then I respectfully ask you to reexamine that reaction. Wanting to help animals who are suffering and wanting to help humans who are suffering are not mutually exclusive desires. In fact, the meat industry is responsible for some of the most disgusting human rights violations. The United Nations has released statements that speak to this fact. Furthermore, the meat industry is killing our environment (again, the United Nations puts the meat and dairy industry above all transportation industries combined in terms of carbon footprint) and that also causes suffering for humans. But, bottom line, why does it upset you for people to want to lessen the suffering of an animal? Is it because you are taking it personally and you feel inadequate or accused by these advocates? If so, please no that this isn't about *you.* It's just about justice for innocents. That's all. Plain and simple. And if easing the suffering of a being upsets you, you might want to ask yourself why.
Yeah, poor ducks, poor bulls in corridas,poor monkeys that test the solar lotion you use during summer, poor rats that suffer a lot to save our lives etc. it's such a trivial claim. And what about these little asians that are manufacturing your clothes every day in the conditions we all know? What about our old computers that all go to Central China to polluate and contaminate people that do not even know what is facebook? Please stop claiming for a (very very) few animals and be kinder with your neighbors! Thanks