The Truth of Foie Gras

NOTE: I wrote this post last Thursday on my flight to London. Only now as I am leaving did I realize I had internet in the room and could have posted this a few days ago! So my post on London will come soon, but read on to find out more about foie gras. Thanks! Jen :)

The weather is turning in the Dordogne, bringing a change in color in the trees and a crisp feeling in the air. It also means that the majority of tourists have packed their bags and headed home, leaving the valley very quiet and peaceful-no more long lines at the store, no more waiting in miserable traffic and more time for me to get out and explore.

Something that has been on my list of things to do is to get out to a real foie gras farm and see the whole process. From my post, you can see that I had already dealt with the end product and the bird itself, but I wanted to see how these birds are raised and more specifically, the gavage process. It is highly controversial and in 2012, foie gras will not be able to be bought, sold, or produced in California and I wanted to find out why.  Caitlin & Albert’s good friend, Nathalie, has owned a foie gras producing farm for many years with her husband Denis and gives nightly tours, ending with the gavage feeding. Since the tourists have gone, yesterday was a perfect day to go check out what was really going on.

Nathalie leading the tour

The tour was in French, but Nathalie was very kind to explain everything to me after in English. It started in the field where they keep the geese that are just about four months old. They grow all their own corn, wheat, and barley on the farm and allow all of the geese, except for the very small baby ones, to be out in the corn fields during the day eating what they want.

running out of the fields

At night, these geese have to go inside, as badgers and foxes will come and get them. We asked Nathalie if she had problems getting the geese in at night. She said no, they follow her in as they think she is their mother. They also do not fly, even though they are big enough and do not have clipped wings. But just as much a Nathalie leads them into bed (in the barn), they think enough of her as their mother that because she doesn’t fly and because she didn’t teach them, they simple do not fly.

The tour then went up to where she has her geese that are about two months old. We walked past a large caged structure and I learned that’s where they dry all their corn etc to make the feed with. I had noticed these structures all around the area and being such a large producer of foie gras, it solved a lot of questions!

These geese live much like the four month old geese do. They get all the food they would like during the day in the fields and in the bins, and at night they get brought into the barn. Not a bad life! Nathalie takes very good care of the geese not only to ensure a quality product, but to make sure that they live very healthy happy lives.

The tour lastly moved into the building where they do the gavage. Before we went in Nathalie explained the process to everyone and tried to dispel some of myths there are about foie gras. She wanted to make clear that these animals are not sick and in no means are the livers ‘diseased’. In the wild before migration, ducks and geese eat a lot and would store their extra fat and calories in their liver. For them, this ‘overeating’ is a normal activity. She explained that even in France, which many would say is the world’s biggest proponent of foie gras, the journalists are posting that they are diseased. At the farm, when the animals enter the stage for the gavage (only the last month of production), they enter in at about 5 kilograms and leave about 10 kilograms roughly doubling in weight, a lot of it in the liver, which in process can be up to 1 kilogram itself. For a foie gras liver to be sold as so, it must be over 550 grams. The best she says, weigh about 800 grams or else they might be too fatty.  Below I included some pictures of their gavage process, where you see Denis feeding the geese. Skip ahead if you are squeamish or would choose not to see, though I promise the process was very gentle and not gruesome or repulsive at all.

Denis with the machine in the foreground

Denis is magnificent with the birds and knows all of them practically by just looking at them. He knows whom he has feed and whom he hasn’t and it takes him about an hour to do roughly 100 ducks. The first couple of groups he does while talking to the tourists and visitors, answering questions and talking about the process. Once everyone leaves, he is able to do them all very efficiently and gently.

 I’m not saying that everyone should eat foie gras or buy it, but I do think that people should re-evaluate what it is. Dating back to the ancient Egyptians which paintings on the tomb walls of funnels and geese, the process of gavage and the production of foie gras is not new. What is new is the unfortunate factory farmed, mass-produced foie gras that is harmful and unethical. But, I think just the same of factory farmed beef or chicken-harmful and unethical to the animals and the environment. People like Nathalie and Denis take GREAT care of their birds, protecting them from the elements, and feeding them with homegrown food. It's as if the birds are their children.  

I could talk to them both for hours, learning about the process and the history of foie gras. Denis even offered to let me actually do the gavage, with his brand new machine that makes it easier on his hands and wrists, but I don’t think I am ready for that. I am however, ready to open the conversation up on foie gras, to learn what people say and think about the process and the product.

puppies on the farm too!