Why ban foie gras at Austin restaurants? Activists point to animal cruelty.
Protests and petitions could potentially put an end to foie gras, the liver delicacy served chilled or seared at a variety of Austin’s high-end dining establishments, in a growing trend across the country.
Nearly a year ago, Carter Graham joined a local advocacy group that is seeking the banning of the sale of foie gras in Austin. Graham said she heard about the group while volunteering at the Austin Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit that rescues and houses animals from the industrial farming industry.
“We have to do what we have to do, to stand up for animals that are being abused,” she said.
Foie gras is made by force-feeding ducks and geese through a funnel, often two to three times the amount of food they regularly consume, to enlarge their livers to 10 times their size — a practice that some consider cruel and unnecessary. Due to the aggressive nature of the force-feedings, the birds are at increased risk of suffering a perforated esophagus, choking on their own vomit and even death. Should they survive the fattening process, they are slaughtered at just a few months of age, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The ducks are not the only ones paying high prices: The dish can retail for as much as $45 a plate in Austin.
How are activists pushing to oust foie gras in Austin?
Graham said the group initially approaches restaurants that serve foie gras, presenting undercover footage of foie gras farms to restaurant staff and highlighting their inherent mistreatment. She said the group only resorts to protests if no action is taken to remove the costly dish from menus.
According to Graham, the activists plan to continue educating and protesting at restaurants in the hopes that they can eventually provide evidence of their success to the Austin City Council, to enact a city-wide ban.
“I think it’s important to know where our food comes from and the victims involved in the production of our food," she said.
Employees of Austin restaurants J-Prime Steakhouse and Jeffrey's told the American-Statesman that the restaurants removed foie gras from their menus as a direct result of the communal action. PETA said it successfully pushed Nido to remove foie gras from its menu before it was even served. Managers and owners of those restaurants declined to comment or did not respond to the Statesman's requests for comment.
The group’s protests have caught the attention of other Austinites.
Paige Lizak, a resident of Clarksville, was inspired by recent protests at Jeffrey's, a longtime fine-dining mainstay, to petition the Maguire Moorman Lambert property to remove foie gras from its menu. Lizak's petition acquired over 500 signatures, mostly made up of Clarksville neighbors.
"We've been wanting to do something, and this felt like small, local change that we could actually do," she said.
Lizak’s background in public health informed her decision to get behind the cause. She disagrees with the notion that foie gras production is the same as industrialized slaughter of cattle or pork, saying the former is "purely for a delicacy." She cited the American Veterinary Medical Association, which has said it considers foie gras production, and not other parts of industrial animal farming, to be animal cruelty.
PETA has also involved itself in the local restaurant scene. It sent a letter to Nido in 2022 that highlighted the organization’s animal cruelty investigation of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, which is, according to the New York Times, both the largest producer of foie gras in the United States and has a near monopoly on the product domestically. A spokesperson for Hudson Valley could not confirm how many restaurants in Austin it currently supplies.
Don’t California my Texas
Other American cities and states have had varying success banning the dish, with litigation diminishing efforts across the board.
Chicago and New York passed bans in 2006 and 2019, respectively, though both were overturned by legal action. Pittsburgh’s city council approved the ban, 7-2, but it now faces a potential lawsuit from Hudson Valley Foie Gras.
California is notable for being the only state to ban the production and sale of foie gras. The state passed a ban on the production and sale of the delicacy in 2004, which took effect in 2012. The law was partially appealed in 2022, after a lower-level court allowed the sale of foie gras produced outside the state. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a full appeal of the bill last year.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Why ban foie gras at Austin restaurants? Activists cite animal cruelty.
