California may once again scrape foie gras off restaurant plates, after a judge ruled in favor of a ban on the delicacy made by force feeding ducks and geese.

The decision Friday by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals removes a roadblock to enforcing a 2004 ban that has been idled for more than half the time it has been on the books.

Animal rights groups applauded the action, while chefs who serve the dish reacted with anger and confusion.

Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement that “the Champagne corks are popping.”

“PETA has protested against this practice for years, showing videos of geese being force-fed that no one but the most callous chefs could stomach and revealing that foie gras is torture on toast and unimaginably cruel,” Newkirk said.

As of Friday night, the foie gras torchon was staying on the tasting menu at Melisse in Santa Monica, said owner and two-star Michelin chef Josiah Citrin.

“I didn't really know it was coming; we’ll just see what happens,” he said. “I enjoy eating foie gras, but it’s not going to end what I do. I just don’t like being told what we can and can’t use.”

The Legislature passed the law in 2004 after finding that forced feeding was cruel and inhumane. But it delayed enforcement for seven years so producers could come up with a new method of making the delicacy.

The typical method involves placing a 10- to 12-inch metal or plastic tube down a bird’s esophagus to deliver large amounts of concentrated food. When the birds are force fed, their livers grow to 10 times their normal size. The process is “so hard on the birds that they would die from the pathological damage it inflicts if they weren’t slaughtered first,” California’s legislative analyst wrote when the bill banning foie gras was introduced.

Producers and a restaurant that serves foie gras filed suit to overturn the ban on sales. A district judge ruled in 2015 that the state ban illegally interfered with federal law.

Because federal law “contemplates extensive state involvement, Congress clearly did not intend to occupy the field of poultry products,” the 9th Circuit said.

The court noted Friday that Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, India, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom have some form of a ban on forced feeding or on foie gras products.

Marcus Henley, the manager at Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York, said in an email to The Times, “We will appeal. This process may take months. Until this appeal is completed, the law and the ban are not implemented and foie gras is legal to sell and serve in California.”

The challengers will have two weeks to ask a larger 9th Circuit panel to review Friday’s ruling, after which the 9th Circuit must decide whether to consider it. That process could take weeks, if not months, attorneys said.

If the challengers lose again in the 9th Circuit, they can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Until then, at least, restaurants may still serve the dish.

“Nobody needs to take foie gras off the menu tonight and we certainly aren’t,” said Ken Frank, chef at La Toque French restaurant in Napa Valley, which serves two dishes that feature foie gras.

Frank, whose advocacy for foie gras has attracted a lawsuit from animal rights activists, said the court decision would serve to bring in more gourmands to restaurants such as La Toque.

“What will happen is, foie gras sales are going to go back through the roof now,” he said.

Food Network personality and Los Angeles chef Eric Greenspan described the ruling as “just crazy.”

“Nobody likes to get held from cooking things that they usually love and not only that, but this is something customers love, too,” Greenspan said. “Don’t eat it if you don’t want to, but don’t impede on anyone’s rights to do what they want to do. Foie gras is one of those things to me that connects classic food to modern food and it’s been going on for so long and such a part of so many great classic cuisines that it will be missed.

“Let’s ban assault rifles before we ban foie gras if you want to talk about cruelty,” he said.

At Neal Fraser’s downtown L.A. restaurant Redbird, foie gras torchon is one of the most popular items on the menu.

“Don't we have anything better to do than attack foie gras?” Fraser said in an email to The Times. “Like ending childhood hunger, cleaning up Houston or getting a step up on homelessness. Foie gras is not the problem.”

Paul Shapiro, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the U.S., which pushed the original ban, said a broad spectrum of consumers in many countries have expressed revulsion at the practice of force-feeding poultry to satisfy the palates of a niche group of gourmands.

"If you can get Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former pope and the Israeli Supreme Court to agree that foie gras is inhumane, then there must be something to it,” Shapiro said.

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Thank you for reminding me to never relocate to that fine state.

"The typical method involves placing a 10- to 12-inch metal or plastic tube down a bird’s esophagus to deliver large amounts of concentrated food. When the birds are force fed, their livers grow to 10 times their normal size."

How do people come up with these ideas?

quote:

foie gras

one of the very best things I have ever eaten, truly, and a long time favorite of mine.

I'm not sure there's anything *more* delicious, though I like several things equally well.

sucks for California.

quote:

Originally posted by Suppressed:
How do people come up with these ideas?

Well... they were French, so....

-Rob

There are so many reasons for me to never again go into California that I can't keep track of all of them.

Seems like they shouldn't ban foie gras but the inhumane method of manufacture. That is what seems objectionable. If a humane method of production is developed, foie gras should be acceptable, yes?

Who's the fucking idiot that made the assault rifle comment. For that alone, ban away. Let them eat cake.

Foie Gras has been around since the Egyptians, but the French made it famous, so to speak. The current methods are just more efficient / more industrialized versions of what had sometimes happened naturally way back in the Pyramid times. Not that that necessarily makes it OK. The ethics of it all, Veal too, are separate question I don't dwell on, myself.

My brother, Dirty Chuck, has a motto - mind your own business.....

in this instance, if you don't like the stuffed duck/geese you can avoid it by not ordering it...and eventually the number of people ordering it will make the restaurant adjust their menu....

quote:

"The typical method involves placing a 10- to 12-inch metal or plastic tube down a bird’s esophagus to deliver large amounts of concentrated food.

meanwhile, many folks do basically the same thing to themselves, OK, without the tubes, but...

quote:

one of the very best things I have ever eaten, truly, and a long time favorite of mine.

never an eater of liver of any kind, once years ago at an upscale buffet we attended, I got a largish helping of what I ~thought~ was something else....took a big spoonful of it at the table and without thought or ability to contain the reaction, immediately spit in out forcefully with considerable surprise from all who observed it....

some things just aren't palatable to everyone....this item is one of them.

I don't care who eats it as long as I'm not expected to be included. Same with oysters. Even those few occasions I've attempted to taste them something visceral rushes in & gags me forcibly.

I like foie gras. But for those who are saying stay out of their business, just insert the word "dog" and see if your reaction changes. Of course it will.

I might disagree with the wisdom of the ban but in our system of government I see no reason why California shouldn't be allowed to do this. Frankly, I'm happy they get to reap some of what they sow.

My wife is a lawyer that does probono animal advocacy work. Fois gras is one of the more twisted ways man has come up with to Fuck with animals to eat them. I eat meat daily, (she's a vegitarian), but I have lines I draw. This should absolutely be illegal, right up there with keeping animals in cages roughly their size so they can't even turn their heads. It's really sickening.

Makes me want to get some and put it on some nice french bread. Yum.

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:
My wife is a lawyer that does probono animal advocacy work. Fois gras is one of the more twisted ways man has come up with to Fuck with animals to eat them. I eat meat daily, (she's a vegitarian), but I have lines I draw. This should absolutely be illegal, right up there with keeping animals in cages roughly their size so they can't even turn their heads. It's really sickening.

I saw videos at culinary school of the force feeding of geese for this and it's pretty disturbing.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:
My wife is a lawyer that does probono animal advocacy work. Fois gras is one of the more twisted ways man has come up with to Fuck with animals to eat them. I eat meat daily, (she's a vegitarian), but I have lines I draw. This should absolutely be illegal, right up there with keeping animals in cages roughly their size so they can't even turn their heads. It's really sickening.

I saw videos at culinary school of the force feeding of geese for this and it's pretty disturbing.

It really surprises me so many here is OK with it.

Never thought i would agree with PETA... but on this one i do.

Those aggrieved chefs should take a page from BLM's manual, and BURN THAT BITCH DOWN. It's the modern way do things.

No problem with the ban. I wonder about chefs who protest for the right to inflict intentionally inhumane treatment on animals for the purpose of creating a luxury menu item.