This is part of a larger issue faced in the food industry today. There is constantly a question of quantity versus quality and how it is going to impact the price. The three main meat sources in the North American diet: cows, pigs and chickens, are quite often raised in less than pristine conditions. They are confined in overstocked pens, which can lead to fighting or unintentional injury among animals, and then corralled to the slaughterhouse where more injuries may be accidentally obtained en route. These injuries present during slaughter, forgive me for making the comparison, make the animals just like a dropped and bruised apple – the inedible portion must be cut away and discarded.

Any stress present from their habitation, relocation or conditions of slaughter will be present in the meat, even up to the final moments of the animal’s life. Stress affects animals in the same way it affects us. Their heart rate grows more rapid, their blood pressure is increased, and stress hormones are secreted. These stress hormones trigger the “fight or flight” response, releasing glycogen from the muscles and liver and converting it to energy (glucose). When the animal dies, the stored glycogen is converted to lactic acid, which affects the pH level of the meat. In the absense of glycogen, that is, when it is used up from stress, an optimal pH level is not achieved, which affects its appearance and shelf life, but also leaves the meat significantly less flavorful and drastically alters its texture.

Industrial processes have been designed with this in mind. Though the quality of industrial meat often suffers somewhat from hastened fattening and poor husbandry, there are measures in place to significantly reduce stress from slaughter. That doesn’t change the fact that a properly tended for animal results in not only a relieved conscience, but a better piece of meat for the consumer.

With this in mind, I would like to briefly address the subject of foie gras. Unlike chickens, cows and pigs, hardly anyone eats foie gras with any sort of regularity. Of course, cruelty being measured on a contrast of scale of production is hardly good debate. My argument is that, if glycogen is released during stress, and glycogen is primarily stored in the liver, and if the release of glycogen quite measurably effects the quality of the consumer product, based on that, does it seem logical that the process of making foie gras should be stressful to ducks and geese?

For a product so expensive and luxurious, considered by so many chefs as a hallmark ingredient of quality, it does not stand to reason that the production of foie gras should be a stressful environment. It would be absurd to deny that there are foie gras producers that undoubtedly subject their ducks to similar conditions as factory raised chickens. However, the primary image of “gavage” feeding is that of forcefully pouring grain down a duck’s throat, and the response to that is that it would be cruel to do it to a human and therefore cruel to do it to an animal, and there are some important distinctions to be made on that.

Foie gras harvesting existed long before the induction of gavage feeding and harvesting foie gras naturally still occurs, albeit on a rather small scale. Therefore, foie gras is not dependent on this process, though it does in fact yield a better product. In my opinion, a ban on foie gras entirely is as absurd as banning steak because fattened cows have better marbled meat.

Ducks naturally produce enlarged, fatty livers as an energy source for seasonal migration, and commercial foie gras production simply embellishes this trait. All other factors of the duck’s life being proper, a distinction must be made in that a duck’s metabolism and physiology is significantly different from our own. Their esophagus allows the process of gavage feeding to not be particularly cumbersome or harmful, and modern practices allow this feeding to take place in as little as several seconds. Although the process is often demonized, I have read reports of ducks raised for foie gras that quickly become conditioned to queue for their rations, rather than resisting the process and having to be restrained. While the ducks may become rapidly and unnaturally fattened, I do not believe that the process of “force feeding” them alone should condemn the entire enterprise of foie gras. Like anything, if proper practices are in place, not only does the animal live a happier life, but we have happier consumers with more delicious culinary options.