Portland council set to vote on foie gras ban
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City councilors will decide Thursday if foie gras has a future in Portland. Photo: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The days of finding foie gras on Portland menus may be numbered as city councilors get ready to vote on banning the fatty liver delicacy Thursday.
The big picture: Proponents of the ban say force-feeding poultry to produce foie gras amounts to animal cruelty, while restaurateurs say it's largely performative and would create yet another hurdle for local businesses.
State of play: Six of the council's progressive members are likely to support the ban, Willamette Week reported.
- Councilor Steve Novick, the seventh and potentially deciding vote, told the paper he intends to vote in favor of the ban after the council amended it to extend the implementation timeline from 60 to 180 days.
Zoom in: Foie gras is the fattened liver of poultry — usually ducks or geese — created by force-feeding the birds a high-calorie grain mash.
- Canard and Le Pigeon are among the few Portland restaurants where the French delicacy is available — in a terrine, tucked in a profiterole, or wrapped in a dumpling.
- Andy Fortgang, sommelier for both restaurants, tells Axios the ordinance contains misinformation about the farms where foie gras is produced, which he says are routinely inspected by the USDA and comply with animal-cruelty laws.
- He calls the ban "performative," since it doesn't address animal treatment in other parts of the food system.
"It's a luxury product that's served in a small amount of places to a small amount of people, so it's an easy target, because it doesn't change the food system," he says.
The other side: Much of the testimony in favor of the ban has been from members or supporters of Pro-Animal Oregon, a nonprofit that advocates against factory farming.
- They've argued that forcing an animal to consume food through a tube inserted into its throat is inhumane.
- And they point to a survey of 250 Portlanders from the Animal-Human Policy Center at Colorado State University that found more than 80% supported the ban.
- "Portland has an opportunity to set a clear standard that animal cruelty should not be treated as a luxury," Eva Hamer, executive director of Pro-Animal Oregon, said in a statement ahead of Thursday's vote.
Zoom out: Several foie gras bans are already in effect across the country — including in New York City and statewide in California, though Fortgang notes both of those laws have been the subject of extensive litigation.
What's next: The City Council will take up the ordinance at Thursday's meeting, which convenes at 2pm.