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As Slashfood's Nicole Weston noted
earlier in her summary of today's New York Times dining section, California's Sonoma Foie Gras has filed suit against Whole Foods.
The backstory? Last fall, Whole Foods -- clearly feeling the heat from animal rights activists -- issued an ultimatum to Sonoma Foie Gras' processor, Grimaud Farms. Whole Foods gave Grimaud Farms a choice: either stop processing and distributing for Sonoma Foie Gras or stop doing business with Whole Foods. Sonoma Foie Gras, in turn, has dropped a lawsuit on Whole Foods for "intentional interference with contract."
The repercussions of this case, which comes to court on Friday, may be larger than any single court decision.
While animal rights activists -- who see foie gras as among the cruelest of foods -- have won a few victories (including a Chicago City Council vote last week to ban the sale of foie gras, which Slashfood's Nick Vangoni posted about last week), they may just have woken up a giant.
The Times reports that Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Sonoma Foie Gras, Rougie (Canada) and D'Artagnan have teamed up to form the North American Foie Gras Producers Association. Their first act was to hire Ag Associates, a lobbying group.
Think foie gras is cruel? Wait 'til you see lobbyists in action.
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5-04-2006 @2:56PM Andrew said... Oddly enough, my local Whole Foods stocks the *fresh* D'Artagnan foie gras by the slice. So I'm not really sure what they're up in arms about here.
Of course, my real complaint with Whole Foods is that they combine a perfectly sensible policy regarding stocking healthy and organic foods with... insane pseudoscience woo-woo-ism (have you seen the freakin' homeopathic aisle??) and now, apparently, bizarrely indefensible sops to the fringe animal rights groups.
Hey Whole Foods: If you're going to sell (tasty, tasty) veal by the pound, then MAYBE it's a little late to pretend you're pro-animal rights, don't you think??
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5-04-2006 @3:17PM Anne Metz said... Well, unfortunately, I think a fair number of Whole Foods customers dig the fairly contradictory blend of commitments to organics, witch-doctors and animal rights.
Sure, it makes no sense, but isn't that why we (and Whole Foods corporate) love the bourgeois-bohemians?
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5-30-2006 @7:15PM Adesina said... I work for Whole Foods Market and it is absolutly against our standards for any of our stores carry foie gras. If you believe that they do, please post the location of the store so I can look into it. We do sell veal but it is not raised in confinement the way conventional veal is.
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6-03-2006 @8:31PM medleysoul said... Who are these people who are outraged that you're against force feeding ducks. Are they just industry lobbyists or do they actually like causing pain to animals?
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6-30-2006 @2:55PM delvino said... On a recent trip to southern France, while attending a weekday market in Apt, we purchased some foie gras from a local producer. Having asked where we were from, he laughed and said "they just banned foie gras in Chicago". This from a relatively obscure, independent producer, making a living from his trade.
The banning in Chicago is a joke, around the world. I'm sure some of our alderman eat, discreetly, this wonderful product. Ahhhh......hypocrisy is an interesting concept. It's the old, do what I say, not as I do, line.
Reminds me of the time some wacked out animal rights activist harassed me for wearing a mink, while they had leather shoes & belt. Right!!!
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