Mar 4, 2008 8:09 pm US/Eastern
Maryland Rejects Foie Gras Ban
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ―
Gourmands who favor duck liver delicacies can keep eating. A proposal to ban foie gras in Maryland is headed toward rejection.
A senator who sponsored the proposed ban said before its hearing Tuesday that she is likely to withdraw or modify her bill after learning more about foie gras, which is French for "fatty liver" and is produced by force-feeding geese and ducks.
"It seemed like an excellent idea," Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore, said of the ban. Conway sponsored the ban bill, but told a Senate committee considering it Tuesday that she was likely to withdraw it or change it to study whether foie gras production is cruel.
"It appears to me it's a terrible practice. It's a gruesome practice," Conway said of foie gras production. But she went on, "I think the bill went a little far."
More than a half-dozen states have considered foie gras bans, but only California has passed a ban into law, and it won't take effect until 2012. The city of Chicago enacted a ban last year, but gourmands in that city have flouted it, sometimes using coded orders reminiscent of Prohibition speakeasies.
Foie gras is not produced in Maryland, but some restaurants serve it, and chefs argue the delicacy could not be replaced for gourmands who enjoy it.
"Foie gras has an incomparable richness," said Sergio Vitale, owner of Aldo's Ristorante Italiano in Baltimore, where diners nosh on seared filet mignon topped with foie gras and truffle sauce. The restaurant also serves foie gras with cherry sauce as appetizers.
"Right on the palate it sings, 'Luxury,"' Vitale said of foie gras. Vitale said he has visited a foie gras farm and that it was "a duck country club."
Some chefs said they feared other foods would be banned next.
"My question is, where is this going to stop? Today it's foie gras, what's next? Will I be able to steam live crabs, lobsters, mussels, clams?" asked Brian Boston, chef and owner of Milton Inn in Sparks. Boston called foie gras "one of life's great pleasures."
Animal rights advocates insisted that ducks and geese used in foie gras production are treated inhumanely and the dish should be banned.
"It's cruel, it's inhumane, it's not natural," said Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society of the United States, which supports foie gras bans.
"This practice is notoriously abusive. It simply has no place in modern society," Shapiro said.
Lawmakers heard conflicting testimony from veterinarians on both sides. One argued that ducks and geese lack gag reflexes and aren't hurt by force-feeding; another called foie gras production cruel.
Maryland's state veterinarian, Dr. Guy Hohenhaus, said the state Department of Agriculture opposes a ban.
"We don't believe the science supports the welfare arguments," Hohenhaus said.
Lawmakers spent about an hour listening to debate on foie gras, though the bill appeared unlikely to head to the full Senate for more debate.
"I'm not certain what we want to do with this bill -- whether to recommend to ban the practice or study it," Conway said.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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