Banning Foie Gras
Listening to Marketplace on the way home tonight, I heard a report by Molly Peterson on foie gras. I was glad to hear that many restaurants have stopped serving it, and that legislation has been proposed in California to outlaw the sale and production of foie gras. But having once tasted foie gras, I was struck by Peterson’s description of the stuff. "Chefs and foodies rhapsodize about its velvety mouth feel..." When I tried foie gras, I knew I had experienced that "velvety mouth feel" before somewhere--peanut butter. It doesn’t taste the same, of course, but foie gras and peanut butter have exactly the same texture. Now think about this. If you were served the organ of an animal that had been reduced to the texture of peanut butter, can you imagine the conditions this animal must have endured to cause this?