San Jose Mercury News
May 19, 2004

SACRAMENTO - Foodies, consider this fair warning.
A bill by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton that would ban the production and sale of foie gras produced by force-feeding ducks and geese has taken another step toward passage.

By a 24-14 vote, the Senate on Tuesday approved the ban, which would take effect in 2012. No Republicans supported SB 1520, which now moves to the Assembly.

If the bill becomes law, producers could be fined $1,000 per bird, per day. The ban would effectively put California's only producer, Sonoma Foie Gras, out of business. Company representatives have said previously their birds are treated humanely.

The controversy involves the process by which the decadent staple of French cuisine is produced. A feeding tube is inserted into ducks and geese to engorge their their livers to up to 10 times their normal size. Switzerland and the United Kingdom already have banned foie gras production.

To many animal lovers, it's a brutal practice. But some gourmands contend a ban would infringe on people's rights to eat what they wish and could lead to other prohibitions on animal consumption.

Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Tustin voted against the bill on personal and philosophical grounds.

``My wife loves it, it's her favorite food,'' Ackerman said after the vote. ``I think it's really getting government involved in people's lives where they don't belong.''
- Burton, a San Francisco Democrat, disagreed.

``The process of ramming metal tubes down ducks' throats and then forcing air and food into them constantly is cruelty to animals,'' he said after the vote. The measure ``has nothing to do with telling people they can or can't eat foie gras.''

Burton insists that the bill will not stop people from buying and eating foie gras. But Daniel Scherotter, the executive chef at Palio d'Asti in San Francisco, doesn't see how that's possible, because ducks and geese do not naturally produce the fatty livers that are foie gras.

``I tend to view it as a freedom-of-speech, diet, commerce and bodily-control thing rather than a foie gras thing,'' said Scherotter, who started serving foie gras terrine after acts of vandalism against other foie gras purveyors. He sees the bill as leading to a ban on all poultry, because the chicken and turkeys that wind up on supper tables are also are raised in unnatural environments. Burton has not expressed interest in tackling other consumables.

Teri Barnato of the Davis, Calif.-based Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, said foie gras lovers may still be able to get their fix humanely if the ban becomes law.

``We've been told if you take duck liver and mix it with duck fat, you get a product that is similar to foie gras,'' she said. As an alternative, she and bill sponsors are planning a tasting event for lawmakers next month that will feature ``faux gras'' -- pates made from California lentils and mushrooms.