Fans of New York foie gras are going to be heady. New York City voted its ban from 2022 on Wednesday, October 30, to the chagrin of restaurateurs who offer it on the menu, reports Le Figaro. The text, presented at the beginning of the year by several municipal councilors, prohibits the sale, the use or even the possession of foie gras. It has yet to be ratified by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. His disappearance from the tables of the Big Apple follows in particular the vigorous campaign led by associations for the defense of animals. The latter have not ceased for months to denounce the “cruel and inhuman” force-feeding of geese and ducks.
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For American producers and restaurateurs, this is another blow. Several states, including California, have already banned it. “Foie gras is disturbing, but nobody says anything about the shark fin soup, which all the restaurants in Chinatown serve!”, Denounces Pascal Petiteau, owner of the Bistro Vendôme, in Manhattan. The latter denounces the hypocrisy of defenders of the animal cause who prefer to attack a niche and not the powerful industrialists. “Chicken is such a powerful lobby in the United States that they don’t have the weapons to prevail against it in court. And God knows their battery-farming methods are worse than what we’re talking about here.”
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“A cultural loss”
By banning foie gras from New York, the economic losses will ultimately only be small, given the modest quantities sold. “But it’s a cultural loss,” said Pierre Landet, owner of Félix, a famous French restaurant in Manhattan. Some establishments are already considering how to keep it on the menu, bypassing the legislation. “We will make the bread at 24 dollars, with its little special accompaniment. We will call it brioche arranged,” says a restaurant owner. Be careful, however, violators are liable to a fine of between $ 500 and $ 2,000 for violating the ban.
As Le Figaro reminds us, foie gras sold in the United States is mainly produced on American soil or in Canada.
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