Former 007 Moore takes stand on foie gras

A7ce

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090913/ten-former-007-moore-takes-stand-on-foie-a56114e.html

British actor and former 007 Roger Moore renewed Sunday his campaign against foie gras, slamming the process of making the delicacy as "vile" and eating it as "ridiculous".


The ex-British super spy has written to the chairman of London's upmarket department store Selfridges, offering to buy its entire stock of the product, which is created by force-feeding ducks.

"It's called foie gras which is fatty liver which is a diseased liver," the 81-year-old Moore told Channel 4 news.

"The idea of eating something that is diseased is absolutely ridiculous but when you think of the way it's produced then it's vile."

"I would be very happy to buy his (the chairman's) existing stock of foie gras if he would give me the undertaking that he wouldn't restock.

"There's been no response whatsoever to that. I presume maybe he can't afford the stamps," he added.

Selfridges said it would investigate any suggestion of illegality in the production of its supplies of foie gras.

But the store told Channel 4 it planned to keep selling the product, citing huge public demand especially in the months leading up to Christmas.

Moore first achieved worldwide fame by starring in British television show "The Saint" as smooth-talking Simon Templar.

He took over the Bond film duties from Sean Connery in 1973, making his debut in "Live and Let Die" before completing the sequence with "A View to a Kill" 12 years later.

In recent years Moore has become well known for his humanitarian work, most notably through his activities as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, helping raise funds for under-privileged children.

He has also lent his support to animal activists People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which campaigns against foie gras, the making of which it says is cruel.

Hugo Drax

As a vegetarian, I'm very glad that Sir Roger has lent his support to the campaign. In my view, the production of foie gras is inhumane and should be outlawed.

thesecretagent

Forced foie gras is almost entirely carried out in France and has been for many hundreds of years. It is made by the periodic force-feeding of geese using maze (commonly called corn). The geese are fed and watered and kept in largish pens. Usually twice daily they are held, a short funnel put in their mouths and a large measure of maze poured in. It is done very quickly and over time inflates the liver to approximately four times the size of a regular goose. To those who know (and I am one of them) the taste is exquisite.
That said, we in Britain are more aware of the welfare of animals now, and the sourcing of our food. So like free-range chickens, and grass-fed cattle, British farmers have searched for a way of producing foie gras in an ethical maner. This has been done in Britain already with veal. Veal is a young beef calf that is kept in a pen, fed milk and nothing else, and slaughtered at two months. This has been illegal in Britain for fifteen years. British veal is produced under the label of rose veal and is kept free range for three months, then in large pens for a further three months and fed on hay, dried feed and sileage. This is the same six month period also common for the slaughter of lamb and pigs. Rose veal calves are milk breed males, that with no use to farmers, are usually slaughtered at birth. Rose veal gives them a reletively kind lease of life and in most food producer's views, is better than death soon after birth as a commodidity killing.
British geese farmers have found that by feeding buttermilk into the diet, a fairly close product to foie gras can be produced. It is not swollen to extremes, and is classed as a healthy liver. I have eaten it, and it is close enough for me to agree that there is no reason to continue traditional foie gras imports to Britain. Geese are farmed and will always be farmed for the Christmas market, so the by product of a faux foie gras has to be a good thing.
That said, France needs to look at itself and decide whether it should still produce foie gras. Many livelihoods, and businesses will be directly effected as a result. And there are many food industries - the American beef market and the Danish pork market as just two examples - who are in far more danger of leading the way in cruelty and mistreatment of animals than the French.

little nelly

Good on ya Sir Rog. You've gone up even higher in my estimation now. What a brilliant bloke.

Sir_Miles_Messervy

As an avid fan of Iron Chef in my younger days, I always wanted to try Foie Gras. Now, I see it on menus and go, "What would Sir Roger think?"

As such, I've never tried it and don't suspect I ever will.

Lexi

There isn't much I wont eat - however, I do stand against Veal (the traditional style of rearing) and the other is Foie Gras.

Needless practices just for a slightly more refined taste isn't my idea of good food.

Good on Rog to take a stand