• Golden State to ban foie gras on July 1, and will be only state to do so
  • Ban states that over-feeding of ducks via tubes is cruel
  • Ahead of ban, high-end restaurants serving abundance of decadent food

By Associated Press and Beth Stebner

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This is not a good time to be a duck with a fatty liver in California, though better times lie just ahead.

Chefs are loading their high-end menus with duck liver: terrine de foie gras, seared foie gras with mango chutney, foie gras salad and sweet foie gras for dessert.

And they are keeping secret the locations of their multi-course dinners to avoid protesters as a July 1 ban looms in California, the only state to outlaw foie gras.

Cramming in: High-end restaurants in California are squeezing in as much foie gras into their menus as possible ahead of a state-wide ban; here, a carrot soup topped with foie gras cream at Sent Sovi

Cramming in: High-end restaurants in California are squeezing in as much foie gras into their menus as possible ahead of a state-wide ban; here, a carrot soup topped with foie gras cream at Sent Sovi

Liver alone: Foie Gras is torched and made into a brulee at Sent Sovi Friday; the culinary treat will be banned on July 1

Liver alone: Foie Gras is torched and made into a brulee at Sent Sovi Friday; the culinary treat will be banned on July 1

Demand for the delicacy created by force-feeding ducks through funnel-like tubes has never been higher as diners sate their palates with a product that soon will be banned for production and sale in the Golden State.

'The price has doubled. People are finding it hard to get it because the demand is so high,' said Tracy Lee of the San Jose-based traveling dining service Dishcrawl, which has organized a series of 15 secret, sold-out foie gras dinners. Her last one is Thursday.

While gourmands stockpile foie gras at $60 a pound, others are stomaching the frenetic food fest with disdain.

'High-end foodies and chefs stuffing down their throats excessive amounts of fatty liver from force-fed ducks in the run-up to the ban paint a pretty ironic picture,' said Jennifer Fearing of the Humane Society of the United States.

As the California foie gras feeding frenzy escalates, protesters in San Francisco and Los Angeles are staking out restaurants and even making reservations to tie up seats at dinners they know they'll never attend.

'Many people don't know what foie gras is or how it's produced and they're horrified when we tell them,' said Dana Portnoy, who shot undercover video inside a foie gras operation and organizes the San Francisco-area protests. '

Prep work: Chef and owner Josiah Slone, right, prepares a foie gras dish at Sent Sovi; renegade chefs across the state are loading their menus with the fatty duck liver

Prep work: Chef and owner Josiah Slone, right, prepares a foie gras dish at Sent Sovi; renegade chefs across the state are loading their menus with the fatty duck liver

Dining on duck: Guests enjoy a foie gras dish at the restaurant

Duckadent: Guests enjoy a foie gras dish at the restaurant

Delicious dish: The food will be banned because of the cruel way in which foie gras must be prepared

Delicious dish: The food will be banned because of the cruel way in which foie gras must be prepared

Occasionally we'll run into antagonistic patrons, but that's usually when we're protesting at the foie gras benefit dinners.'

It's why Lee doesn't publicize the restaurants where her dinners will be held until a day before the date.

'So far we haven't had any protesters, which has been nice,' she said.

The California legislature gave the state's only producer, Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras, more than seven years to come up with a cruelty-free way to fatten the duck's liver when in 2004 it voted in the ban on producing and selling foie gras.

Absent that, a coalition of chefs have mounted a lobbying campaign to try to overturn the law in the future, and the foie gras dinners are funding that on-going effort.

Force-fed: A farmer in France force feeds grain to a duck as part of the traditional process to fatten its liver for foie gras

Force-fed: A farmer in France force feeds grain to a duck as part of the traditional process to fatten its liver for foie gras

A mallard of life and death: Geese wait for their midday feed where they are force-fed to enlarge their livers; Israel and the Czech Republic have banned the practice

A mallard of life and death: Geese wait for their midday feed where they are force-fed to enlarge their livers; Israel and the Czech Republic have banned the practice

To the oohs and aaahs of about 30 diners, Chef Josiah Slone hosted a recent seven-course foie gras feast at his Sent Sovi restaurant in Saratoga.

He started with arugula with foie gras vinaigrette, moved to foie gras mousse with tartufata and English peas and seared foie gras with savoury rhubarb pie. For dessert: foie, peanut butter and chocolate.

FATTY TREAT OR CRUEL FEAT? THE TRUTH BEHIND FOIE GRAS

Torched foie gras and confit tian layered with Manitoba wild rice and maple salad

Foie gras - French for 'fatty liver' - is made from liver swollen to 10 times its normal size, which the lawsuit argues is acute hepatic lipidosis, a condition linked to obesity in animals.

Ducks' livers become so engorged by the feeding process called 'gavage' that the birds can't walk and have trouble breathing.

Gavage has been outlawed in a dozen countries including Israel, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

'For me, it was more of an educational dinner to talk a little about how foie gras is produced and the science behind how it's produced,' Slone said. 'Yes there are two sides to it, but understanding the line between science and emotion is very important for people.'

There are enough 'quality ingredients out there' that his California-French menu won't be lacking when it's gone, Slone said.

As someone who goes to extreme measures to source quality meat and vegetables, he thinks animal welfare advocates could end more suffering if they'd focus on practices at large confined animal farming operations producing beef, chicken and pork.

'I think the issue that the animal rights people have is a lot bigger than foie gras,' Slone said. 'Foie gras was sort of an easy target, sort of low-hanging fruit.

'But in the sense of improving conditions of animal welfare, ending some of the factory farming practices that big ag is defending is a very admirable goal.'

The California ban, which maintains that over-feeding ducks using a pipe stuffed down the esophagus is cruel, comes as four animal welfare groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month, making another point about foie gras.

They hope to secure a national prohibition by arguing that USDA is violating the Poultry Products Inspection Act by allowing 'diseased birds' to enter the food chain.

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have not been moderated.

This is disgusting! I had no idea what foie gras was until now and I am stunned. Why do humans sink so low? - Chrissy, MS, USA.... Wake up and educate yourself with something beyond People magazine. On the global scale of just how far a human sinks, force feeding ducks is way down the list... Maybe after people do something about stopping genocide, female circumcision and a few hundred other horrible things that are done against HUMANS... maybe then I'll take the time to worry about a duck. - Yirmin, USA, 30/5/2012 11:59...I suppose you are the type that believes that if you cant fix everything then we as humans should fix nothing. I have found thru my volunteer work, that the ones that complain and compare every animal welfare issue with the treatment of children and other horrible things are the ones who do nothing about any issues....animals, children, environment etc.

nce again the wants of the few overpower the wants of many!!! Hope you like the new law California!!! I wonder if it will be like prohibition??? I bet there will be fau gra (sp) smugglers now!!! - Celia, Port Orchard, USA, 30/5/2012 12:04....Celia, it was hardly the wants of a few. It was a vote and the majority won by a landslide.

How is this any different than the way caged chickens are kept in massive chicken houses in the US? There are probably millions more chickens suffering much worse through their short lives. Why not ban that? - Me, Here, 31/5/2012 00:03...It is not any different than the factory farms where chickens are kept in horrific conditions and confinement. And there are millions more chickens than ducks. Humane treatment of all animals needs to start somewhere. Will the ban on foie gras change the world? No, but it will change the world for those cruelly force fed ducks.

And yet when the ducks see the funnel coming to them, they run TOWARDS it. Fortunately, ducks do a good job of gorging themselves some times of the year. I expect a fall duck's liver will be foie gras-y enough for the foodies.

How is this any different than the way caged chickens are kept in massive chicken houses in the US? There are probably millions more chickens suffering much worse through their short lives. Why not ban that?

Look Yirmin (or should I say Virmin) I am very educated and well aware of the horrible suffering both humans and animals go through on a daily basis around the world. That does not make me any less disgusted when a human is cruel to an animal just so they can have a delicacy. Do I put a human being before an animal? Yes! Do I think it is okay to stick a pipe down a ducks throat for something that we do not need? NO!!!

The wants of the many Celia? That's funny....I didn't realize engorged duck liver was a regular staple for the unwashed masses of California. My guess is a few tight purses in San Fransisco and LA will be crying over this and few else. And in either case, it IS cruel to the ducks, which believe it or not does play a role in people's food choices.

Foie gras is a marvelous delicacy but very difficult for one to get these days

Dm's epic fail with a joke headline about something so disgusting and evil.

Once again the wants of the few overpower the wants of many!!! Hope you like the new law California!!! I wonder if it will be like prohibition??? I bet there will be fau gra (sp) smugglers now!!!

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