The bill's chances appeared dim in August when Schwarzenegger told National Public Radio that the Legislature should be busying itself with more important matters. "They are sitting there, and I am getting bills here about how to feed a goose," he told NPR.

But the bill was carried by Burton, with whom Schwarzenegger confers regularly, and lobbied for by a host of Hollywood celebrities allied with animal-rights causes.

In a signing message, Schwarzenegger said the bill "provides 7 1/2 years for agricultural husbandry practices to evolve and perfect a humane way for a duck to consume grain."

Many chefs, however, have long held the age-old method is the only way to produce foie gras and said the governor's signature could have the practical effect of banishing the delicacy from the state's high-end restaurants.

"This is way more anti-business than any of the other bills," said Dan Scherotter, executive chef at San Francisco's Palio d'Asti and a member of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association's board of directors. Customers will "fly to Vegas to eat it. People used to fly to San Francisco to do fine dining -- and they don't anymore."

Guillermo Gonzalez, who runs the state's sole foie gras farm, said in a statement late Wednesday that "we ... are excited to work with his administration on a long-term solution."

But even animal rights activists doubted a different method could be found, and they lauded Schwarzenegger's move.

"We do not believe there is another way," said Teri Barnato, national director of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights. By 2012, she said, "we hope ... consumers will be educated on the issue" enough to eliminate demand.