No More Foie Gras?
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-DEADLY SUSHI-
Washing Up
Ohhhh man. 
I have to be honest here. I stayed at a French friend's family farm in the countryside - very idyllic. Her Mum used to raise all types of animals for their personal consumption (they were mostly a milk and cheese farm) - including geese for fois gras. Watching that elderly Frenchwoman overfeed the geese had the result of putting me off fois gras for life. Prior to that holiday, about 15+ years ago, I LOVED it! 
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
I am very sorry to admit, but I hate those animal right s people. They will not stop till we all eat only plants and grass. Sorry, not for me. Save the plants! Eat meat!
AllenOK
Executive Chef
CharlieD said:
CharlieD, I've been using my current signature in some form or another for about 10 years now. GMTA!
Honestly, I wish everyone involved with PETA would grow up and smell the coffee. IMHO, they're more of a PITA. What's next, Tyson Chicken? IBP? Wait a minute....doesn't KFC get their chicken from Tyson? If so, then I guess Tyson has already been harrassed after Pam Anderson did that sign.
On the gripping hand, I don't even like liver, much less Fois Gras.
choclatechef
Washing Up
AllenMI said:
Got to agree with you Allen. Life would not worth living on a vegetarian diet!
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
I'd have to be really hungry to live on vegies. I just love taste of meat, I can live on meat alone, though it is probably not good for you. Problem is that PITA people are like ... well, "kids" was a very polite comparasing Allen.
jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
I think there is a big difference between eating animals (yum, I do!) and torturing them, then eating them (something I can't support) .
Like Ishbel says ... if you were to see how the fowl is force fed in order to bloat the liver up for foie gras, you, like she and I, may swear off foie gras forever.
They had a special on it on Food TV which was very, very graphic. And sad.
Like Ishbel says ... if you were to see how the fowl is force fed in order to bloat the liver up for foie gras, you, like she and I, may swear off foie gras forever.
They had a special on it on Food TV which was very, very graphic. And sad.
Jennyema
Watching my friend's mother holding the beak closed and stroking the neck of the geese to force down the food.... BLECH
There are not many foods that are on my 'No' list - foie gras and veal are both on it. Haven't eaten veal since I was about 16 and actually learnt how the calves were raised to produce that wonderful meat meant that I was unable to justify my eating it. And I really used to love veal, too
I have long tried only to eat meat raised by Compassionate Farming methods.
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/campaigns/other_campaigns/farm_assurance.html
Watching my friend's mother holding the beak closed and stroking the neck of the geese to force down the food.... BLECH
There are not many foods that are on my 'No' list - foie gras and veal are both on it. Haven't eaten veal since I was about 16 and actually learnt how the calves were raised to produce that wonderful meat meant that I was unable to justify my eating it. And I really used to love veal, too
I have long tried only to eat meat raised by Compassionate Farming methods.
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/campaigns/other_campaigns/farm_assurance.html
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AllenOK
Executive Chef
Most meat-packing plants (at least IBP, as I was taught in college) try to keep the poor critter as calm as possible, and to put the animal down as quickly and painlessly as possible. There is a good reason for this: When an animal dies in a stressed-out condition, the meat is not "the best it can be". The hormones and toxins present when muscle tissue is excersized like that render the meat tough.
My sister and BIL used to raise a couple calves every year for slaughter. One year, the calves managed to get out of the pasture, and some idiot chased them down the road in his car for a mile or two, on the day they were supposed to go to slaughter. As a result, my sister and BIL waited a couple of weeks, then sent them off.
My sister and BIL used to raise a couple calves every year for slaughter. One year, the calves managed to get out of the pasture, and some idiot chased them down the road in his car for a mile or two, on the day they were supposed to go to slaughter. As a result, my sister and BIL waited a couple of weeks, then sent them off.
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
I don't want any animal to suffer but I think the PETA folks really need to get a life. Like CharlieD said, they won't stop until we're eating grass.
PETA is a particularly American phenomenon! Although they DO try to make inroads in Europe - particularly here in the UK. BUT, we have had ethical farming in the UK for at least the last 30 years. We have also had the Soil Association working tirelessly for better control re what we put in the ground to raise meat or cereals or vegetables. GM crops have had a very hard time in the UK - we don't like them and don't want them. Even the British Govt has agreed (after allowing a 5 yr trial) that GM crops DO interfere with the ecosystem around the crop sites. Here's the URL for the Soil Association, should any of you be interested in learning the history of organic farming in the UK
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf?Open
I love meat - couldn't imagine a diet without it. All I want is for the meat to be raised in the best possible way whilst it is reared, then killed humanely and delivered to my kitchen in prime condition for me to cook it as well as I can! My butcher is a small local shop (not a chain, not a supermarket) and he has a local farm where he raised beef, sheep and chickens. All are 'Organic' and therefore more expensive than the battery-reared hens available elsewhere - but I pay the extra because I want to know where my meat is sourced. That doesn't mean I want to stop the cheaper end of the market - just that I don't want to eat it. I don't believe the meat tastes as good as properly reared and unstressed beasts produce. As AllenMI says, this is the only way to ensure optimum taste
I'm not asking anyone else to adhere to my beliefs. Neither am I the kind of screaming banshee that typifies PETA (and its European equivalents!) about 'Animal Rights' having more credence than human rights
Good Scottish beef is the finest in the world - bar none (why, otherwise would the great herds of places like Texas and South America and Australia have imported Aberdeen Angus to 'beef up' their herds?! )
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf?Open
I love meat - couldn't imagine a diet without it.
All I want is for the meat to be raised in the best possible way whilst it is reared, then killed humanely and delivered to my kitchen in prime condition for me to cook it as well as I can! My butcher is a small local shop (not a chain, not a supermarket) and he has a local farm where he raised beef, sheep and chickens. All are 'Organic' and therefore more expensive than the battery-reared hens available elsewhere - but I pay the extra because I want to know where my meat is sourced. That doesn't mean I want to stop the cheaper end of the market - just that I don't want to eat it. I don't believe the meat tastes as good as properly reared and unstressed beasts produce. As AllenMI says, this is the only way to ensure optimum taste I'm not asking anyone else to adhere to my beliefs. Neither am I the kind of screaming banshee that typifies PETA (and its European equivalents!) about 'Animal Rights' having more credence than human rights
Good Scottish beef is the finest in the world - bar none (why, otherwise would the great herds of places like Texas and South America and Australia have imported Aberdeen Angus to 'beef up' their herds?! )
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
jennyema said:
Until I was 14 I spent every summer on the farm. Believe me I’ve seen everything there is to see. Force-fed geese, slaughter of a pig and a cow, rabbits being killed with a slam of a hammer on their had, chickens’ head chopped off with an ax and chicken still runs without the head. Believe me it is most terrifying thing a 5 year old (maybe even an adult) have seen in his life, I still some times dream about it. I’ve been to slaughter houses too, not modernize beautiful and clean American ones, the ones in former Soviet Union, where there was no PETA and where cruelty or maybe simply just disregard to animals’ life was pretty much a norm. My hart have never hardened by what I have seen, I still feel very-very bad when I see things like that, but I am not about to stop eating meat. PETA’s accusations go very far. And their selection of what to show is carefully crafted in such way that any normal person would be terrified by what is going on. Recently I’ve seen two such presentations, one on kosher slaughterhouse, and the other one on force-fed geese. It was horrible; I almost had tears in my eyes. The only reason I did not cry is because the slaughterhouse they have presented happened to be the slaughterhouse I have been to, too many times. They (PETA) have been filming there with hidden camera for 7 month, and they were able to cut 3-4 accidents where bull gets up on its feet after being already dead. I know exactly what is going on and how animals are being slaughter and what they presented was at best falsification of facts. Well okay maybe it is not falsifications per se, but it is obviously so selective and so twisted presentation of real facts that to me it was obvious how determine they (PETA) are to present only their perverted, twisted side of the story, so people like you and me will naturally feel bad, and they got it. We do feel bad. If I did not know the truth I would seriously consider becoming vegetarian. I’m not surprised at all that people who have seen presentation of forced feeding of the geese consider not eating foie gra. I only wish they would know the whole story.
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Charie
I never said I'd viewed it on a TV - I said I'd seen it happen on a French farm. No distortion, no freeze frame, just overfeeding and then holding the beak closed and 'teasing' the food down the goose's throat until they were totally bloated....
I have problems with both Kosher and Halal methods of slaughter. I've seen both, close up and personal.
None of the above has put me off meat - it has only served to strengthen my belief in ethical farming and ethical slaughter methods.
I never said I'd viewed it on a TV - I said I'd seen it happen on a French farm. No distortion, no freeze frame, just overfeeding and then holding the beak closed and 'teasing' the food down the goose's throat until they were totally bloated....
I have problems with both Kosher and Halal methods of slaughter. I've seen both, close up and personal.
None of the above has put me off meat - it has only served to strengthen my belief in ethical farming and ethical slaughter methods.
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
Ishbel said:
I know you didn’t. It was more a response to Jenyema, and more of a fact of what PETA does. So I really did not mean to say that you were watching the TV thing.
About ethical farming, I am all for it. About kosher slaughtering Torah absolutely prohibits unethical treatment of animals. And kosher slaughtering plants take a great care of making sure of that. This is btw one of reasons the hunting is prohibited. Kosher slaughtering though not as pleasant looking as when a huge nail is pneumatically driven in cow’s head, is in fact much faster and less painful way of killing an animal.
jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
CharlieD said:
Huh?
What did I say about PETA filming anything? What did I say about PETA, for that matter?
Tony Bourdain's FoodTV show had a very up close and personal segment on the force feeding of geese to produce fois gras. It was heartbreaking. And he is very pro-fois gras. The show had nothing to do with PETA or animal rights, as i am sure you can guess.
I have also seen it on other television shows that had nothing to do with PETA, and read descriptions of it in books and magazines that promote the consumption of fois gras.
I have not seen it with my own eyes, but growing up inthe midwest, have seen my share of farming.
Whatever you choose to do/believe is your business. I am a member of PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. But I very strongly believe that it is wrong to torture an animal in order to somehow make it more appetizing for the human palate.
I agree with everything Ishbel says.
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buckytom
Chef Extraordinaire
i think we should eat the protesters...
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
Thank you for that, Buck!
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jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
buckytom said:
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