Row as foie gras comes off menu in some French cities
A picture taken on November 9, 2020 shows a crate of foie gras, livers of duck especially fattened, during the traditional poultry fair in Samatan, southwestern France, amid the covid-19 pandemic. – At the first post-confinement market the week before, there were half as many shoppers as producers, causing prices to drop to 20/25 euros per kg instead of 35/40 euros. (Photo by GEORGES GOBET / AFP)
PÉRIGUEUX, France — Politicians in France’s Perigord region, known for its foie gras, have denounced a decision by the mayors of several cities across the country to ban the delicacy from official functions.
“At a time when the detractors of foie gras are multiplying, let’s be proud of our gastronomic identity and our products,” says a petition signed by 56 politicians from the southern region.
The production of foie gras, which is made from the livers of force-fed ducks and geese, is regularly condemned by animal rights activists.
They have welcomed the decisions by green or socialist mayors in several cities, including Strasbourg, Grenoble and Lyon, to ban it from official tables. But the petition dismissed the bans as “political opportunism”.
This latest petition follows a statement by animal rights group Peta last week praising one such ban imposed by the mayor of Lyon — a city renowned for its gastronomic tradition.
But the petition said the decisions were based on an out-of-date understanding of how foie gras is produced.
Most foie gras, it argued is “produced on French territory on small, ethical farms that comply with strict quality standards,” the elected officials argue in the petition.
And the mayor of Pau, Francois Bayrou insisted on the excellence of the product during a television interview Sunday.
“Today’s force-feeding has nothing to do with yesterday’s force-feeding,” said Bayrou, a well-known national figure for his leadership of the centrist MoDem party.
“I can assure you today that this force-feeding is gentle, it was not in the past,” he told BFM-TV.
