California is a little less stupid today

Brendan_Lee_56950

http://sf.eater.com/2015/1/7/7510575/heres-the-legal-judgment-in-the-california-foie-gras-decision

Now you can enjoy your foie again!

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Matthew_Snyder_68770

First, WOOHOOO!!!! Best news is that The Bazaar by José Andrés is celebrating the news by offering their cotton candy foie gras dish as complimentary bar snack today between 5 and 7.

Second, this ruling presents an interesting situation. In 2008, we passed a ballot measure in California which defined the minimum size of the enclosures for egg hens and veal calves for all such products sold in California, and that law just went into effect on Jan 1 of this year. A lawsuit filed by several states was dismissed a few months ago on a lack of standing, which meant that the case was not decided on the merits. The foie gras ban was overturned because of existing federal legislation concerning the production of poultry-related products which preempts any state measures. There is also existing federal legislation concerning the production and inspection of eggs, and this also includes a preemption clause. All this means two things: Any attempts to ban foie gras will have to come on a national level, as all potential state and local measures will be preempted by the federal law. And the CA egg hen law is effectively DOA. (All of this presuming the trial court ruling survives appeal)

The really depressing thing is that the minimum defined space for a hen enclosure was defined as about the size of a piece of 11x17 paper...... which is roughly twice as big as current factory farms use. That's gross.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I heard about that law, CA is backwards enough that they'll still try and pass it somehow though

Matthew_Snyder_68770

The production of foie gras is still banned in-state, that part of the law remains.We had one producer at the time of the law's enactment. One. Put them out of business. Because that's fair.

Mel_102729

Neither the production nor sale of foie gras was ever really banned in CA. The law, if you look it up, banned the practice of gavage, and the sale of liver produced through gavage. It is possible to produce foie gras without gavage, and that foie gras would not have been affected by the ban.

Sure, foie gras produced without gavage would probably be extremely expensive, and not produced in large quantity. But it's foie gras - not something anybody needs to survive. Perhaps it SHOULD be expensive and only a rare treat.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Certainly, there were several restaurants that continued to serve non-gavage foie gras right through the ban. You are correct to point out my overly broad comment.