Letters to the Editor
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Penny
You're absolutely correct that I don't bother to delve into great analysis of on-line "controversies" like force-fattened fowl and the resultant liver product. We actually have more in common that either of us might think. We raised four children, two of each gender, now long since adults. Two are vegatarian (of the ovo-lacto pesco brand), and two eat anything except each other. We have them all here for Sunday dinner with the three, now going on four, grandchildren, and we adjust menus gladly to accomodate who's eating what. One former vegetarian now eats lamb. One formmer vegan now eats salmon like a grizzly bear. We don't judge. We just love them and feed them what pleases them. None of us would eat McCrap except at gunpoint. We choose locally grown produce and grass fed beef. I've never purchased fois gras. In all seriousness, I do think this discussion is grossly disproportionate to the problems in the American diet, much less the hideous inequities of world hunger. We lived in Wyoming for ten years, where lots of folks depend on game meat to sustain their families. It ain't Dick Cheney hunting. we got used to very interesting dishes at school pot lucks, but, again, we did not judge. Carrying all that guilt for animals is more than I have the strength to deal with, frankly. It's human behavior that gets my attention. Please, no speeches about how the two are allied. A little, yes, if you mean bestiality or gross animal abuse. Otherwise, turn the binoculars around. there are bigger issues. My best to you and your sons. May they stay the hell out of the military, where death is a profoundly more pressing issue.
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you prove there are assholes everywhere
there are assholes everywhere, and it makes no sense for their existence to overwhelm a persons capacity to react to any other aspect of a reality. So ususally when people claim that it does it's hard to believe they were ever aware of the reality in question to begin with
Are you implying PETA is a useful institution (you were responding to a former PETA member)? I'd pay to see those misogynistic bastards target a fur-wearing hip hop star with his entourage on a Saturday night. Heh...SO not gonna happen in my lifetime, since they lack the balls.
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I doubt he was a former PETA member, and yes PETA has done some good
if someone actually had been a member they would know that, the facts of what peta has accomplished and what they are responding to don't go away no matter what else happens. I don't doubt that the negative descritions of some people could be a real experience, but since he seemed to be oblivious to everything else I'm sure the whole story was made up just so he could lend validity to his supposed point about how ironic it supposedly is that the "greenies" love europe so much and hate what he apparently regards as the only good thing about it, i.e diseased geese and the appreciation therof, at the same time.
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but since it has come up, what I find amusing is that a lot of the same people that normally fall all over themsleves to celebrate the superiority of the anglo saxon over all else
seem COMPLETELY uninterested in the fact that the animal rights movement is stronger in England, Australia and New Zealand than anywhere else and are instead celebrating tortured, diseased FRENCH!! geese as the symbol of the ultimate expression of human freedom. Sacre blu!!!!
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Vegans, Vegetarians, etc...
While all of you vegans and vegetarians are so busy patting yourselves on the back b/c "nothing had to suffer for your last meal," remember that your peas and fruit don't pick themselves. A lot people suffer in this country and in others, in the name of providing freshly picked (or freshly slaughtered food) for the major food producers. Whether your burger is made of soy or beef, it didn't package itself. If the recent E.Coli outbreaks taught you nothing, they should teach you that most of the food you eat, whether you choose to pay top dollar at Whole Foods, or shop at the local discount merchant, or buy in bulk from Sam's Club or Costco, comes from one of a handful of food producers. And they treat their large, largely immigrant, non-unionized workers like garbage.
Not everyone wants to be a vegetarian. Even fewer people want to be vegan. I love milk, and cheese, and eggs, and meat. And that's my choice. But before you drown in your schadenfreude, please remember that there is very little that is produced and sold in this country that doesn't someone exploit someone.
I sometimes buy organic and vegan products too, and I seriously doubt that some of the low prices that you see could have been achieved without some migrant workers efforts. I'm sure that a lot of your "local" organic farmers are employing low paid, possibly underage migrant laborers. Are you morally superior just because you then paid too much for said food at the local gourmet market?
No matter how conscientious you may claim to be, trust me, someone or something suffered to bring you your meal. I personally am less bothered when the something is a cow or chicken and not an immigrant child, but what do I know, I'm just a carnivore who happens to love foie gras.
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Foie Gras Ban a Joke
This ban is not only a joke, but a scary precedent in the food world. To tell people what they can and can't eat, or buy or not buy, is quite frightening. I love how PETA also goes against such a small luxury item, Foie Gras, rather than going after commodity pork or chicken farms. The reason is that Purdue, Tyson, Hatfield, etc. have millions of dollars to put towards legal and marketing fees to shut up a small group such as PETA. That these laws have passed in NY and CA, plus the restaurant ban in Chicago is utterly amazing. It is a scary time in this country. If you don't like it or want it, don't eat it or buy it or frequent the restaurant that serves it. However, don't make it illegal. What a joke.
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Demfacists Hate Freedom
That includes the freedom to eat Duck liver.
Those who don't like it are invited to shove it up their asses.
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Egads
More inane banter about food, and the food police. There are other far more pressing concerns at the moment with respect to food than foie gras. And, I don't think this has anything to do with "demfascists". Anyone pick up on how the NYPD is busting ethnic groceries in NYC for serious food related issues, like selling mystery meats.
What Bourdain and Ruhland are getting at is very simple, that food is deeply woven into the fabric of our cultures. The crackdown on illegal foods in NYC has quite a bit more to do with politics than health. Immigrants bring with them their cultures, and their foods. They don't care what vegans think, but they'd respect them for having the ability to choose that way to eat. Most people on this planet eat locally in a very real sense: they eat whatever is closest, whether it's the goat in the backyard or the yogurt they make on their own. Going to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or whatever is something we can do. Like Bourdain, I've traveled extensively. And I read extensively about food and culture. We live in the land of plenty, and we can choose among just about anything. This is a luxury few people have.
And the food police want to cut back the foie gras and trans fats while allowing some of the more heinous items still available -- soft drinks, for example, or all those preservatives, and processed foods. Most European nations have strict laws against genetically modified foods, preservatives, and processed foods. If you eat sausage in Germany it was probably made that morning. If you eat it here, it's loaded with stuff to give it a half-life instead of a shelf-life. Why go after foie-gras and trans fats?
It's funny, I was in Munich back in May and I ate wonderfully. At the Cafe am Beethovenplatz, everyone was drinking, smoking, and eating pork, fresh white asparagus (a delicacy in Germany), and drinking wine. All around my wife and me were dogs brought in by the owners. Nobody bitched. Nobody complained, Everyone was carrying on thoughtful conversation, and there were medical students from across the street right along with everyone else. It was a lively community in a very old, and historic building. Down the street, we ate at a terrific Italian restaurant where people ate inexpensively right along with their dogs, their cigarettes, and their bottles of Chianti.
Food is about culture, and about togetherness. We all should have the choice to eat what brings us together. New York without pizza, for example, wouldn't be the same. French food without foie gras is missing something. If you don't like it, don't eat it. Nobody's holding a gun to your head telling you that you must. Likewise, nobody should be telling anyone what not to eat.