Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is a delicacy produced from
the enlarged livers of ducks and geese that have been force-fed
corn.
Animal rights groups contend that the force-feeding process is
painful and gruesome. Farmers who raise birds for foie gras
defend their practices as humane.
The New York City Council voted 42-6 to "ban the sale or
provision of certain force-fed poultry products" beginning in
2022, imposing a fine between $500 and $2,000 for each
violation.
"The council is banning a really cruel and inhumane practice,"
said Jeremy Unger, spokesman for Council member Carlina Rivera
of Manhattan, who introduced the bill.
The nation's largest maker of foie gras, Hudson Valley Foie
Gras, located in Ferndale, New York, about 100 miles (160 km)
northwest of New York City, defended the practice it uses to
make the luxury item.
The other two foie gras makers in the United States are La Belle
Farms, also located in Ferndale, and Au Bon Canard in Caledonia,
Minnesota.
"I can tell you we take proper care of the birds," said Hudson
Valley manager Marcus Henley. He said the farm, which employs
400 people, makes foie gras "in conformity with humane animal
management and in compliance with the laws of the state of New
York."
The ban would take effect in three years, in a move meant to
give farmers time to retool their businesses to focus on other
products, Unger said.
But Henley said New York City represents about a third of his
farm's revenues and rather than planning to adjust its business,
he intends to head to court to seek to overturn it. It was
unclear how many restaurants and groceries would be affected by
the ban.
"We don't have an exact number but roughly 1 percent of
restaurants in New York City serve it," Unger said.
Foie gras bans passed elsewhere in the United States have had
mixed results. Chicago's City Council approved a ban in 2006,
only to repeal it two years later after then-Mayor Richard Daley
called it the "silliest ordinance" ever passed in the Windy
City, which made it "the laughingstock of the nation."
California's ban on foie gras went into effect in 2012 and
remains in effect after the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation's
highest court, in January declined to hear an appeal from foie
gras producers.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and
Leslie Adler)
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