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French mayor’s foie gras ban prompts fury from farmers

A French mayor's decision to ban the controversial delicacy foie gras from official receptions has sparked a backlash from local producers.

Published: 26 November 2021 11:07 CET
A sign showing a goose outside a foie gras shop in a street near Strasbourg's Christmas market
Photo: Frederick Florin / AFP

The Green mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian used her discretionary powers to remove foie gras from the menu of official events ‘in the name of animal welfare’ soon after she took office in 2020.

But her decision was not made public – and had gone unnoticed – until an article published in Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, a day before the city’s famous Christmas market was due to open to the public. 

Until then, “foie gras [had been] served sparingly, on canapés or sometimes as an appetiser at dinners,” according to officials at Strasbourg’s city hall.

The article was published after international animal welfare group Peta had sent the mayor a gift of a basket of ‘faux gras’ to thank her for her stance, and to mark World Day Against Foie Gras, after she had revealed her decision in a reply to an earlier letter.

But the news dismayed local producers, who point out that Strasbourg was known as ‘the capital of foie gras’ in the 19th century.

“This is a somewhat surprising announcement, one day before the opening of the Christmas Market. Our association has stands there,” the president of the foie gras producers of Alsace – a group of about a dozen farmers – who raise ducks and geese for processing told Le Figaro. 

The news “tarnishes the image of Alsatian foie gras, a product renowned throughout France,” he said.

“Is she going to take down the Gänseliesel in the Parc de l’Orangerie?” he added, referring to the statue sculpted in 1898 of the young girl leading a flock of geese which references the practice. 

“Are we going to eliminate all animal products, meat and fish, from official tables? Is it normal for the mayor of Strasbourg to impose a personal choice?” another producer, a fifth-generation farmer, asked. 

The farmers have the backing of regional politicians.

“Goose foie gras is a  local product, the tradition is linked to Christmas and Advent,” said Grand-Est regional President Jean Rottner.

More usually associated with the south west of France, foie gras has long been controversial because of the methods of production, which involves force-feeding ducks or geese until the develop the distinctive ‘fatty’ liver. 

Member comments

  1. Food production should never involve the torture of animals. Why is the EU and their ‘lauded standards’ ok with this ?

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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