World Day Against Foie Gras

Today is World Day Against Foie Gras. Whilst JVS makes a concerted effort to avoid posting and disseminating upsetting content, we feel that it is very important today to highlight how foie gras is produced, and the fact that it currently has a kosher certification and is sold in kosher shops and restaurants and by kosher caterers in this country. Foie gras is a ‘delicacy’ produced by force-feeding corn to ducks and geese, in order to fatten up their livers. The result of this is that livers are swollen to many times their normal size, thereby impairing liver function, and the expansion of the abdomen makes it difficult for birds to breathe, the esophagus can be scarred and death can be caused by excessive force-feeding. Such is the cruelty that no British supermarket sells foie gras and Prince Charles has banned it from royal menus. Israel was once the world’s third largest producer. Quite remarkably, in three months from now, Israel will become the first country in the world to ban both the sale and production of this immensely cruel product. The production has been illegal in Israel for a decade. “I am proud to be a member in a Knesset that chose to place values before interests and fleeting pleasures,” said Dov Lipman, an orthodox rabbi who is serving in his first term in parliament, and who sponsored the legislation. Click here to read more about the Israeli ban, and an argument for why the UK should follow suit . Given how at odds its production methods are with Jewish values of compassion and preventing unnecessary harm to animals, JVS will be launching a campaign in the new year with the aim of educating the community, and encouraging and supporting shop owners to replace the product with a more compassionate one, which honours and celebrates our values. Look out for the campaign launch in January 2015.