Food policy expert Baylen Linnekin looks at the federal court ruling that resurrects California’s ban on force-feeding ducks and geese to make foie gras and is not impressed:
Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a District Court ruling that had struck down California’s dumb and unconstitutional foie gras ban. The plaintiffs are already planning their appeal. Technically the ban is back, but the law won’t be enforced while the appeal is pending.
“It is unprecedented and unconstitutional that the California legislature can dictate how New York farmers care for their animals, produced in compliance with New York’s strict animal welfare laws, and processed under federal inspection,” said Marcus Henley, manager of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, a co-plaintiff that’s based in New York State, in an email to me this week.
“States have the right to protect their citizens from inhumane and substandard products,” said Paul Shapiro, spokesperson for The Humane Society of the United States, which wrote an amicus brief in support of the state law, in an email to me this week. “Rather than continuing to fight a losing battle, foie gras agribusinesses should join the 21st century and accept that the vast majority of Americans find violently force-feeding ducks simply too much cruelty to swallow.”
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