Quarrygirl.com, a blog devoted to “all things vegan, lots of things beer, and some things los angeles” just finished an undercover investigation of vegan restaurants in Los Angeles. Her question: are they really serving vegan food? The answer was, in many cases, no.
They went to 17 “vegan” restaurants, ordered takeout food, and took the samples to be tested. Great care was taken to insure against contamination. When the results were in, seven of the restaurants tested positive for “contamination”. It’s an interesting article, even if you aren’t into the vegan lifestyle. I wonder if anyone has ever done the same thing in Portland. You can read the post here.
From Mongabay.com, Madfish?: scientist warns that farmed fish could be a source of mad cow disease. Turns out some farmed fish are being fed cow byproducts. The theory is this could cause mad cow disease up the food chain to humans. The Journal of Alzemier’s Disease has called on food regulators to ban the practice.
The Washington Post is calling the Federal “organic” label into question.
Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture.
In the end, the USDA has lax oversight into the entire organic certification program, to the point where the green label doesn’t really mean much anymore. Scary for those who like to think they are eating organic.
The USDA created the National Organic Program in 2002 to implement the law. By then, major food companies had bought up most small, independent organic companies. Kraft Foods, for example, owns Boca Foods. Kellogg owns Morningstar Farms, and Coca-Cola owns 40 percent of Honest Tea, maker of the organic beverage favored by President Obama.
That corporate firepower has added to pressure on the government to expand the definition of what is organic, in part because processed foods offered by big industry often require ingredients, additives or processing agents that either do not exist in organic form or are not available in large enough quantities for mass production.
Another choice quote:
“People are really hung up on regulations,” said Smillie, who is also vice president of the certifying firm Quality Assurance International, which is involved in certifying 65 percent of organic products found on supermarket shelves. “I say, ‘Let’s find a way to bend that one, because it’s not important.’ . . . What are we selling? Are we selling health food? No. Consumers, they expect organic food to be growing in a greenhouse on Pluto. Hello? We live in a polluted world. It isn’t pure. We are doing the best we can.”
It’s an interesting article; more than a little bit scary. You can read it here.
The New York Times has posted “The 10-Ingredient Shopping Trip“. Mark Bittman came up with a way to make a week’s worth of dinners with just a 10- ingredient shopping list.
There isn’t much news for Portland. As we reported before, Thistle, Eric Bechard’s new McMinville restaurant was supposed to be opening the 2nd of July. Now they are shooting for tomorrow, the 7th. Friends in the area tell me it might actually make the new date. Blossoming Lotus is opening an east side location on NE 15th, just north of Broadway in the old Paper Garden space. Finally, the NY Times posted a piece on the Voodoo donut burger at The Original downtown. I have no desire to try it – I’m sure ya’ll will let me know how it is.
Food Dude-
Please post this letter that Quo Vadis has written to all of the misguided (douchey) foie gras protestors. It is well stated and purposed. Thanks for writing it QV. I only wish that WW or the Oregonian would print it as well. I found the link on Eat. Drink. Think. if that matters.
AS
Quo Vadis is one of my favorite posters on any forum in this town. I’d like to read it as well.
OMG, my fake fish taco is pregnant!
linkage: http://pdxplate.com/forum/an-open-letter-foie-protesters
Who cares about another Portland writer stroking their hometown while working for the Times?
Not Me!!!
Also, nice post QV, to hell with the anti-foie gras nazis
Amazing post on quarrygirl.com. A great reminder that labels lie.
Quo Vadis post against PETA protesters hit the nail on their evangelical heads. Peta is about Peta…they don’t care about animals, they are making a statement. Like the anti abortionists who killed the doctors, they don’t care about life, they care about the fetus…
Thanks for posting this.
It is also amazing how many hard drinking vegans don’t bother to find out if their beverages are actually vegan.
Most beers & wines use animal products in the clarification process.
Vodkas often use charcoal made from bone.
There is a serious disconnect between what they claim to believe & how they choose to educate themselves about these things.
In 23+ years in the business I’ve served a lot of people who said they were vegan but not once been asked about whether the beer/wine or liquor being drunk was vegan.
The vegan article reminded me why I’d much rather eat an omnivorous diet of real foods rather than a vegetarian or vegan diet of mysterious “meat analogs”. At least when I get a piece of chicken from new seasons, I have SOME assurance that it’s not adulterated with all sorts of non-food substances.
I have a shellfish allergy that can cause anaphylactic shock, and this article reinforced my avoidance of most thai, chinese and other asian restaurants. There are just too many opportunities for shellfish to contaminate a supposedly vegetarian dish (shrimp paste and fish sauce are just two examples.)
Meghan writes ^ “At least when I get a piece of chicken from new seasons, I have SOME assurance that it’s not adulterated with all sorts of non-food substances.”
You do ? What assurances do you really have ? Reputation, personal enquiry, knowledge about sourcing, a gut feel, “it must be ok because it’s New Seasons and they are cool” ?
The wonderful quarry girl article casts many serious aspersions on sourcing, labelling, handling, vendor honesty and competency.
I cannot imagine these kind of foul ups are absent from the New Season’s chicken food chain.
Because it’s a piece of chicken rather than uh, tofurky. And, yes, I do put a tad more trust in a place like New Seasons than a larger corporation like Fred Meyer. No system is perfect, but I’m not going to stop eating altogether anytime soon, I prefer a “least bad” option.
I read the open letter against PETA protesters hoping for a good argument, but didn’t find it particularly inspired. Assuming that because one protests for PETA they therefore do not do other compassionate work with animals is just plain ignorance. Downplaying someone’s ethical behavior because they are not perfect (non-vegan alcohol) is simple, and makes us feel insightful, but is neither particularly clever nor productive. I am not a vegetarian, nor a PETA supporter.
I think the point is not just that they have never walked a sick dog but rather that the time, money, and effort are misspent.
I had never considered that alcohol was made with animal products. Then again, I have not developed a world-view with behavioral patterns and a political agenda which would make drinking bacon-beer hypocritical.
Herschel. I have a great deal of trouble taking you seriously in your constructive criticism since you seem so out of sorts that you don’t even realise that the letter a)wasn’t an open letter to Peta and b) wasn’t about Peta.
qv, You’re right, someone mentioned a post against PETA in these comments which I mistook as the same rant. But I don’t think that at all diminishes my criticism.
Have the foie protestors been acting again? I have not heard about them for a while…
Could someone please tell me where they have been spotted lately? I’d love to have a chat with them.
The last time I heard of them, I told them we will get a large grill and a bunch of foie and go grill it in front of their headquarters. Seemed like it calmed them. But if they’re protesting again, I’m up to go do that.
Free foie, anyone?
Hell yes, sign me up. I know what you can do with foie.
Careful, they may go the route of the fur protesters and go protest extreme.
extreme would be arguing with a supersoaker filled with pig’s blood, then again if ol’ Tom Hurley did nothing else for this town he once served a hell of a cookie…
I would be there with a bib made of fox fur and gloves made of baby seal.
Gross and mean.
And pretty funny. Lighten up.
Um, yeah… hilarious.
Fun idea, protesting in front of the headquarters, homes or hangouts of the PETA protesters and doing unto them as they do unto others. But the image “a bib made of fox fur and gloves made of baby seal” leaves me howling on the floor. Even if I am last in line and the last serving of foie gras is long gone, I would consider the sight of the fox fur and baby seal gloves worth the time and trouble. I envision apoplectic protesters clutching their hearts, falling on the ground and squirming, calling out for the administration of emergency fruit and veggie juices.
. . .maybe that puke-green spirulina “drink”.
–mcz
In response to the Wash Post article about organic:
In the 13 years they’ve been producing milk in Oregon and Washington, Organic Valley dairy farmers kept 238,628 pounds of toxic pesticides out of the streams and environment and avoided 150,801 doses of antibiotics and endocrine disrupting hormones. Whereas organic may not be perfect, it represents a powerful attempt to keep toxics out of the environment, our food and our bodies; to keep hormones and antibiotics out of our animals and food. In addition, given we have lost over 4 million mid-size and small family farmers since 1960, it has also been a lifeline to those human resources—the farmers who still know how to manage with the health of people and the elements in mind instead of becoming contract farmers for the food giants. The food system is broken! By 2030, 85% of you all out there will be obese or overweight. Take a look at species extinction, global warming, collapse of fisheries, cancer, allergies, autism, Parkinson’s, and on and on and a little digging will reveal a frightening link to toxic pesticides in the environment and food. At this time in our evolution, we are desperate for sustainable models for food and farming. Organic may not have all of the answers, but it is a model that answers many. We must be doing something right to come under such biased attacks!
I suppose it’s a lost cause, but I’m opposed to the use of the word “organic” on food labeling on the grounds that it’s scientifically lazy and a poor use of the English language.
The proper use of “organic” as a descriptor is chemical; there are organic compounds, and inorganic compounds, and never the twain shall meet. The use of the phrases “organic chicken” or “organic tortilla chips”, on a logical and linguistic level, is nonsensical; it implies the existence of (edible) inorganic chickens and inorganic tortilla chips. I suppose you could, in theory, make inorganic tortilla chips out of some sort of powdered rock and mineral oil, but I suspect they’d be only marginally digestible at best. And I hesitate to contemplate trying to fry an inorganic chicken….
Meanwhile, anyone limiting their diet to purely organic substances in the chemical sense of the word would, of course, quickly be courting the health consequences of assorted mineral deficiencies — iron, magnesium, and so forth. And an “organic iron supplement” is as much of a chemical absurdity as an inorganic chicken.]
Now yes, this is amusing, but my underlying point is entirely serious. A major reason that it’s been so hard to nail down what proponents of “organic” food mean by the term is that the word is not well suited to being used in this way. Neither is “natural”; I seem to recall a precursor to this discussion some months back in which I pointed out the linguistic absurdity of the phrase “artificial ingredient”.
None of the foregoing should be taken as a discussion of specific food products; certainly there is a difference between “pasteurized process cheese food” and Tillamook sharp Cheddar, or between K&Z’s pastrami and the pastrami in the Hillshire Farms package at the supermarket. But we need a vocabulary for describing foods that is less confusing and more linguistically accurate than what we have.
I have long held this same opinion. I like “l’agriculture biologique” but suspect you may take issue with that term too. Non-GMO, pesticide- free, don’t whet my appetite linguistically but usually are what I look for in food.
Another interesting clip from the web about food bloggers and their ethics. An article in the LA Times concerning Eater LA and food blogging in general.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-ethics8-2009jul08,0,2321402.story
Nice find, nathan. I especially like this code of ethichs embedded towards the end of the article:
http://foodethics.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/the-code/
I posted about that back in April. I like it better now that they have massaged it a bit. I follow the Association of Food Journalists Guidelines – http://www.afjonline.com/afj.aspx?pgID=887
Regarding the trace amounts of non-vegan particles in “vegan” food.
For a place that does not specialise in vegan food this is the biggest damned if you do/damned if you don’t.
Since my own experience is what I know best I will use it as a basis:
We refuse to guarantee anything on the menu as safe for allergies or vegan.
We take a lot ( and I mean A LOT) of crap for this and are accused of being unaccomodating.
The truth is that I believe in accuracy.
Most Asian products are made in factories that process foods on the same assembly lines. Nuts, shellfish, dairy, egg, you name it.
As someone with a severe food allergy myself I would prefer to have someone walk out than to make them ill.
Another fine example of strange expectations (Yelp is great for a larf)is an asshat on Yelp ranting against Hiroshi for having miso soup that isn’t vegetarian. Miso soup is made with dashi which is made with fish. Miso soup not made with dashi is made with little freezy-dried packages of powdered bouillion. There should be a minimum IQ requirement before posting on Yelp. Customers paying Hiroshi prices are probably expecting real miso soup.
Of note to everyone out there that lies at restaurants claiming to have an allergy you don’t really have- STOP IT. You are hurting yourself and everyone else.
When you claim to be allergic to something & later in the meal cooks see you eating the offending ingredient off someone else’s plate it makes cooks take allergies less seriously (not me-I’m older & ostensibly more mature & also have to pay my own liability premiums) and this doesn’t do anyone any good.
Here’s some news for ya- an allergy doesn’t suddenly make you more important. So for the love of god if you don’t like something say you don’t like it. Don’t lie. Don’t make the cooks make you a special off-menu vegetarian plate during the Friday dinner rush only to be seen 1/4 way through the meal tasting someone else’s lobster soup, of a bite of salad with bacon or a slice of steak. Even if you ate less than an ounce an animal still died.
To bring this tangent to a close-
Restaurant workers & guests both have obligations to each other. Dishonest guests breed dishonest restaurants which breed more dishonest guests and so on.
If you say you’re allergic and a place tries to tell you honestly they can’t safely prepare your food be thankful for the honesty. Don’t throw a fit- or next time they may have “learned their lesson” and decided to be less careful with the next allergy customer.
I was not aware that Miso soup has seafood in it! I guess you learn something new every day.
Oh I just read that dashi can be made without the fish too, just with seaweed and mushrooms. Although it may not be as authentic….
What you would be talking about there is shojin ryori. The seasonal temple cuisine of Kyoto.
Expecting a sushi bar to be serving shojin ryori style miso would be highly unusual.
Muyissue w/that yelp review is ignorant people writing disparaging things about stuff they no nothing about to the detriment of a business.
And here we reach the great Internet paradox:
the unhindered democracy that is the Internet’s greatest benefit is also it’s greatest deficit–anyone with a connection and a comment, no matter how inane or idiotic, can reach a mass audience instantaneously.
–mcz
qv makes an excellent point and is also very well informed/educated on the fine points of Japanese cuisine. It is always refreshing to hear from somebody who can walk the talk. thanks qv
. . .and Thistle did open as scheduled on 7/7.
–mcz
A reply to QV’s post.
Apologies to FD — I tried to post this on PDX plate but it never showed (deleted?)
“Go protest outside McDonalds… or in a megamart chain grocery’s meat case.
Why don’t you?”
Google “mcDonald’s and protest” and you will find that it *IS* a frequent protest target. Its also very smart to protest foie gras if you are againt animal cruelty. Foie gras is a wedge issue — like veal or fur.
“Because you are la.zy and/or cowards.”
Ad hominem attack.
“you will look like stupid elitist little brats for protesting amidst working class people who are trying to feed their families.”
Straw man and another ad hominem attack. And BTW, I work and have a family.
“Have you ever seen a foie farm, protester? I have. No abuse. ”
I have visited pateria sousa in la extremadura (on my way to the beaches of portugal). The ETHICAL foie gras there was delicious and was produced by non-domesticated geese that naturally engorge. FD can verify that I am posting from Spain currently (and will be back in PDX in a few weeks)
Your claim of “no abuse” is an opinion not a fact. It is a FACT that geese used in the production of foie gras in the USA, canada, and france are domesticated and need to be force fed. This practice is cruel, painful, and can cause serious damage to internal organs. Force feeding is accomplished via a pneumatic pump that injects a nutrient slurry through a long metal catheter at extremely high pressure. Mistakes are not uncommon and typically induce oesophageal and intestinal hernia.
“ALL of these need volunteers to wash, feed & clean up after homeless animals. They also need volunteers to walk, exercise, play with and otherwise socialise animals.”
We foster animals from the humane society regularly. One of my fellow protestors is a vet. Many vets are vegetarian and support peta. (BTW, I am *not* vegetarian.)
“But no, you chose to be “anti”.”
Once again this statement and the preceding rant are straw men. The vast majority of foie gras protestors are engaged activists. Some of them work in non-profits, healthcare, americorps, etc.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I am sad about QV’s over the top post. As someone who loves Japanese food and culture I am going to miss Tanuki.
Two questions and an observation:
1) How can one be a meat eater and protest foie gras? Maybe you eat ONLY free range this and that, but it goes so far beyond that. Do you wear leather shoes? Do you feed your pets conventional dog food? Do you kill mice in your attic? Do you swat a fly during a speech? Where do you draw the line on cruelty? “Ok, I’ll eat this KFC because, well, it’s convenient for me today (with all that I know about corporate chicken production). But no foie gras! That’s my line in the sand!”
2) If some farms make sweet, loving bloated goose livers, why protest all foie gras?
Schwarzenneger did not sign the anti-foie law into effect out of love for duckies. He did it to throw a bone (pun intended) to the PETA folks, sacrifice the small farms, and not totally piss off the big production food companies with any significant changes. Foie gras, veal, fur..these are not wedge issues. They are distractions. Keep the radicals busy with small potato issues so that no important improvements in the truly toxic (GMO, pesticides, uber-bacteria) food we eat can happen.
“How can one be a meat eater and protest foie gras?”
Very easily, Melissa. The fact is that up until recently most foie was not humanely raised whatsoever and that the vehemence of the protesters has helped the situation. Domestically made foie is now much more humanely raised because of this. I respect anyone who stands up for somthing they believe in, regardless of how unimportant others may think it is.
Domestic foie is now on the same level (and in soem cases much better) as many other meats. Still, there are still plenty of inhumane foie producers in the world and unless you put the effort in to know exactly where it is coming from, you could very easily get it from an animal that has not had the “lush life” of the Hudson Valley farm.
That being said, and although some of the foie gras protesters may be misinformed, I do not see how that has anything to do with whether or not they eat meat or wear leather. I personally eat minimal amounts of meat and I am VERY picky about it, for the reason that I want to know that what I am putting into my body is of the highest quality. I personally believe (call me fruity I don’t care) that if you eat meat from an animal that has suffered cruelty, some of that negative energy will transfer to you. If I were to have a big problem with the way a certain type of meat was produced I would not eat it, and perhaps if I had the courage, I would speak out about it. We should be glad that young people are engaged! Even if it may not be the most pressing issue. At least those kids aren’t sitting on their asses letting the world do whatever it wants like so many others! Perhaps they just need some guidance to go after the real issues.
The only time I take issue with people protesting is when they get threatening or violent about it.
I am not huge anti-foie, but I don’t really like it. I also don’t like escargot or frogs legs.
“The fact is that up until recently most foie was not humanely raised whatsoever and that the vehemence of the protesters has helped the situation. Domestically made foie is now much more humanely raised because of this.”
With all due respect this is simply an assumption and not a factual statement.
Upon what concrete evidence are you presenting to us a firsthand knowledge that there wasn’t humanely raised foie until the protesters made it happen?
Where is your proof?
I know what I know from witnessing firsthand and from working with farmers for many years. Unless I am mistaken (and please correct me if I am factually inaccurate) the opinion you are offering as though it was fact comes from second, third and fourth hand information provided by parties who are not shall we say objective or disinterested.
Since we are qualifying our foie statements with personal statements about ourselves I happen to not eat foie. Not really by choice but it just doesn’t come up often and I don’t seek it out. I have no personal stake in whether it were made illegal or not because in my cuisine it simply isn’t a factor.
But I think where you are not getting Melissa’s point, Kolibri, is that she is pointing out the hypocracy of someone who protests foie as a whole- not individual farmers that don’t use humane practices often while wearing leather (how good do you think those cows were treated) eating more common meats that we know for a fact are subjected to inhumane conditions and feeding their pets meat based dog & cat foods from giant megacorporations the conditions of which you wouldn’t be able to handle seeing.
Foie protesters are like a person bitching at a parent for spanking their child while ignoring that right behind them there are thousands of bound & gagged malnourished sex slaves getting beaten for not turning enough tricks.
Well since you are in Spain Valdepenas you are lacking the context for this letter.
The letter was posted in response to a specific group of protesters and a specific series of protests (this is not to say that I don’t think all foie protesters are misguided at best and idiots at worst). It was originally posted on a small forum where many of my industry friends chat and has since spread to those lacking context.
Namely, the recent ones in Portland where a bunch of hipster douches stood around the entrances to local businesses screaming FUCK YOU at everyone who entered and pounding on the windows to disturb diners (whether said diners ordered foie or not). My business partner later had the pleasure of encountering one of them at a cart (eating pepperoni pizza no less-wonder how that pig got treated) and bragging about screaming obscenities at and otherwise harassing everyone who walked into Sel Gris.
The no abuse statement is a fact at the foie farm I visited not an opinion and The Village Voice- perhaps the most liberal rag in the world visited the same farm and agreed- I will try to post a link later.
I am sorry you will miss Tanuki, although if you are in support of crazed hooligans terrorizing small business owners and screaming obscenities at total strangers I cannot say with certainty that Tanuki would miss you.
Ah…found it! For those interested I am posting The Village Voice’s trip to the foie farm article
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-02-18/news/is-foie-gras-torture/1
Beautifully said, both here and in the original letter. I simply couldn’t agree more.
In the interest of fairness I am printing here the closest thing that could reasonably be considered an objective statement on the matter although the group conducting the research can hardly be said to be a completely disinterested party (they are anti-foie but not nut jobs like the Peta folks). Also, it was fact finding for a European commision- and European foie farms (by and large) not as humane as the ones I have worked with in the us.
“A: No. The most comprehensive study ever undertaken on foie gras production was completed in 1998 by the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare, an independent council providing expert scientific analysis to the European Commission. After exhaustive review of all available and up-to-date literature, SCAHAW determined that current foie gras production methods were per se “pathological” and “detrimental to the welfare of the birds.” The 93-page report cites more than 100 scientific sources.
The committee identified many potential problems with the ingestion of large quantities of food, the force-feeding procedure itself and the housing conditions for ducks and geese in foie gras production. Harm to the animals may include:
impaired liver function
difficulty in locomotion due to the expanding abdomen (caused by the increase in liver size)
high mortality likely caused by physical injury
heat stress and liver failure
risk of damage to the stretched tissue of the esophagus
lesions to the sternum
bone fractures
foot injuries”
Now, if we take a look at this the same could be said about overweight people. “Fattening up for slaughter” isn’t such a common phrase for no reason. Most animals (except those bred for exceptional leaness which also involves pratices that make the animals uncomfortable) are fattened specially fed and otherwise treated differently in the time directly before slaughter. It is a basic fact of meat production.
In fact, ducks for foie live much better lives than most animals bred for food. They are force fed only for a period of 2-3 weeks at the very end of their lifespan. Before that they are free to wander around and socialize in a manner most animals destined for the plate would be so lucky to experience.
Here is an except of a reporter from The Village Voice spending a day watching the “force feeding” :
We headed back to the buildings where the feeding was taking place. A worker climbed into the pen with a stool and a wooden divider. (Each worker has a group of 320 to 350 ducks that he or she feeds every day during the 21-day regimen; workers whose ducks have low mortality rates and high-quality livers get bonuses.) A tube with a funnel at the top was strung from a wire above, and the worker slid it along into the pen she was about to work in. The birds clustered on one side of the pen, but didn’t show nearly as much aversion to humans as the nine-week-olds we had just seen did-the older ducks seemed less alarmed by humans, which is hard to reconcile with if they were being tortured.
The woman sat on the stool, put the wooden divider in the middle of the pen, and reached for the first bird. She positioned the bird’s body under her leg, eased the tube down the bird’s throat, and poured a cupful of feed into the funnel above. A rotating auger spins in the funnel to make sure all of it goes down the pipe, but the food is delivered by gravity. The birds did not relish being grabbed, but the actual process with the tube didn’t seem to bother them much. They sat with the tube down their throat for a very short period of time-about 10 to 15 seconds-without struggling or showing sign of distress. The whole process-pick up, position, feed, and release-took about 30 seconds. I watched the birds closely as they walked away from the feeding. Each waddled calmly away, looking unfazed: no breathing problems, no vomiting, and no trouble walking. Their feathers were fairly clean, and I didn’t see any lesions on their feet or bodies.
But these ducks were only on their 12th day of force-feeding, so I asked to see the ducks on their 21st day again-this time, to pay more attention to the details of the feeding. We went back up to the area where we had started from. Some of the cages that were full when we saw them earlier were now half-empty, because some ducks actually go to slaughter earlier than the 22nd day. The feeder feels the base of each duck’s esophagus (sometimes called a “pseudo-crop”), where feed is held that has yet to be digested. Birds that haven’t digested the last feeding are marked with blue chalk and not fed. If they still haven’t digested by the next feeding, they’re not fed yet again and are marked with pink chalk and taken with the next batch to be slaughtered.
The birds on their 21st day of feeding appeared very much like the ones at 12 days, but were fatter and had dirtier feathers. The birds are bathed on the second and 10th days of feeding, but Henley said the farm was working with its animal-welfare consultants to find a way to keep the birds’ feathers cleaner and thus prevent sores. These birds’ reactions to the force-feeding were indistinguishable from those of the 12th-day birds. I looked for the signs that I’d been told would show me that the birds were desperately ill, but these birds, on their 21st day, were not having trouble walking or breathing, they weren’t having seizures, and they weren’t comatose.
I was at the farm for five hours, all told. I saw thousands of ducks, but not a drop of duck vomit. I didn’t see an animal that was having a hard time breathing or walking, or a duck with a bloodied beak or blown-open esophagus. I did see one dead duck. And now I was going to see many more, as I went to the area where they are slaughtered.
If the first excerpt I showed you at the top of this long post from the animal welfare commision is correct than these ducks are basically nothing more than another group of obese Americans- with the exception that the ducks are being fed a healthy diet of whole grains, not McDonalds & Taco Bell.
Even then the report specifies “may include” these symptoms. Some ducks may have one, some a few some several, some none at all. That the ducks have the same discomfort as a 30# overweight American even according to an anti-foie group should tell you something.
The report says that force feeding is “detrimental to the birds” Detrimental? Seriously? You know what’s REALLY detrimental- when they get their heads cut off. Obese for 2 weeks then dead. Gimme a break.
Oh wait…. but the ducks don’t have to worry about self esteem either or fitting into the latest fashions so they’re STILL better off.
People, seriously. There is real actual animal abuse going on. Real actual anything and everything going on. The world is not better for your screaming obscenities at strangers & ruining people’s special occasions (regardless of whether they ordered the foie or not).
I just have yet to hear a reasoned, plausable argument why someone would go at scream at the patrons of a 40 seat restaurant to make the world a better place.
For any one.
Or any thing.
Sorry I forgot to cap the VV article with an end quote and I don’t want anyone to mistake my sentiments for those of the writer of that article and there’s no edit function.
“I did see one dead duck. And now I was going to see many more, as I went to the area where they are slaughtered.” is the final sentence atributable to the VV. Evrything following that are my own feelings on the matter.
Sorry for any confusion.