IT’s time to PROHIBIT Foie Gras in Portland

The City of Portland has a vested interest in promoting responsible and sustainable business practices and protecting animal welfare. By prohibiting the sale of force-fed foie gras, the city will uphold its commitment to these values and help end the suffering of countless animals on foie gras factory farms.

Who Supports A Prohibition On The Sale Of Foie Gras?

Due to public health, environmental, and welfare concerns, sales of force-fed fatty liver (foie gras) is banned or phased out in 27 countries (85% of the EU).

Foie gras bans have also passed in California, NYC, and Pittsburgh.

Major retailers that have stopped selling foie gras:

  • Target
  • Costco
  • Whole Foods
  • NOW Health Foods
  • IKEA
  • PCC
  • MOM’s Organic Market

What is Foie Gras?

Foie gras (/ˌfwɑːˈɡrɑː/) – French for “fatty liver” – refers to a luxury food made from the deseased liver of a duck or goose. Foie gras is typically produced by force-feeding ducks and geese with foot-long metal or plastic tubes until their livers fatten to as much as 10 times their normal, healty size.

After enduring weeks of force-feeding, the birds are slaughtered, and their livers are processed to be sold as foie gras.

Policy Proposal

Portland has a reputation for being ethical and equitable. Our proposed bill would prohibit the sale of foie gras from force-fed ducks and geese in the City of Portland. Enforcement follows a complaint-based model, costing very little.

Less than 1% of restaurants in Portland serve foie gras, and no evidence suggest that business would be lost due to passage.

Major Concerns

  • Ethical Concerns
    • Punctured beaks, necks, exploded organs
    • Suffocation, pain, and injury.
    • Mortality rate is 9x to 19x higher than non-force-fed birds
  • Harm to Existing Poultry, Dairy Operations
    • USDA reports that since Feb 2022, 100 million poultry birds have been killed due to HPAI infection costing $1 billion
  • Negative Effect on Sustainability Goals
    • U.S. foie gras operations procude around 1.5 million gallons of wastewater
    • Waste runoff contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus fueling growth of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and oceanic dead zones
  • Production Can Spread Avian Influenza, Infecting:
    • ducks, chickens, turkeys, pheasants, wild birds
    • cows, mice, rats, cats, goats
    • skunks, foxes, bears, mink
    • humans