If It Quacks Like a Fascist...

CQ Weekly reports this week on the pro-(duck)life movement's assault on our freedom, and the growing pro-(food)choice movement against it.

It may be a pricey gourmet treat, but to animal rights activists it quacks like a duck. And because of the way that the liver of the average duck becomes foie gras, a growing movement against the delicacy maintains that it has no place on civilized menus.

Foie gras foes contend that production of foie gras, made up of fatty duck and goose livers, is inherently cruel: Farmers must force-feed flocks to engorge their livers to 10 times the normal size.

And the animal-rights crusade has made significant headway. In April, the Chicago City Council passed legislation banning the sale of foie gras in the city. The California Legislature voted in 2004 to ban the sale and production of foie gras in the state starting in 2012.

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Farm Sanctuary recently commissioned Zogby polls in New York and Philadelphia that Bauston says demonstrate that a large majority support the bans. The New York poll found that 78 percent of 705 likely voters supported a ban after being presented with a detailed description of the feeding process and existing bans elsewhere. The Pennsylvania poll found that 85 percent supported a ban.

The outcry has caught many foie gras enthusiasts off guard. But last month, they founded the North American Foie Gras Association, which has hired Chicago PR firm Jane Thompson & Associates, lobbying firm Ag Associates, and law firm Sachnoff & Weaver.

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The foie gras group is considering legal challenges to the bans in Chicago and California — the Chicago ban is slated to go into effect in August — and they are also lobbying the Chicago City Council for a reversal.

Chef Michael Tsonton has formed the 40-member Chicago Chefs for Choice, which hosts a fundraiser next month to raise money for legal and lobbying efforts.

“If my guests tell me not to sell it, I won’t,” says Tsonton. “The city council shouldn’t stick its neck in our business.”