When meat is outlawed — in this case fatty livers of geese or ducks — only outlaws will eat meat.
Foodies are hoarding all the fatty geese or duck livers they can find, while new foie gras farmers may be setting up right across the border.
Chefs are flaunting the ban on the fatty livers by serving the very French dish known as foie gras.
And California’s restaurant industry is in federal court, asking to have the ban on serving the fatty livers struck down for a long list of reasons.
All of this stems from a 2004 bird feeding law with a rather long trigger for a ban on serving foie gras, the French delicacy made from fatty livers of geese or ducks. The ban went into effect one week ago, on July 1, 2012.
The law bans the production and sale of both foie gras and its byproducts like down for jackets and comforters.
The nearly eight year delay before it took effect was intended to give producers, using the gavage process involving the use of feeding tubes inserted in the throats of the poultry, time to get out of the business.
In the week since the ban went into effect, California restaurants could be subjected to fines up to $1,000 for serving foie gras. The limited supply of product remaining may be why none have apparently cited.
Former State Sen. John Burton, now chairman of the California Democratic Party, was the sponsor of the 2004 bill. Burton told the Free Republic the law has “nothing to do with meat. It has to do with animal cruelty.”
While animal cruelty was the reason for the ban, questions have been raised about the food safety of foie gras. The argument–which is rejected by USDA–is that force-fed birds develop bacteria or toxins in their blood resulting in a disease that can prove fatal before slaughter. USDA, however, declined a request to put a notice on the label saying: “Foie gras products are derived from diseased birds.”
Chefs and many high-end restaurants in California are not taking the ban lying down. Chicago overturned its ban on foie gras — it appears that how fatty livers are made is less of a concern to policy makers than is the ecological impact of shark fin soup, which is banned.
California groups asked the federal court to strike down the fatty liver ban, mainly because it impacts interstate commerce and may overstep the state’s authority to do so. California has seen other laws struck down for the same reason, most recently on its total exclusion of so-called “downer” animals from federally regulated slaughter facilities.
In the court challenge, the law is also challenged for being too vague to enforce. It includes language to prevent over-feeding, but there are no standards in terms of weight, volume or caloric values.
Sonoma Foie Gras was the only producer operating in California when the 2004 bill was passed. Chefs and restaurants sought unsuccessfully earlier this year to get the California Legislature to withdraw the ban before it was implemented.
As for eating foie gras, L.A. Time food critic Jonathan Gold described the first time he ran across it in France. “It was glorious,” he wrote. “It was not an experience from which I wanted to be saved.”
Obviously there is no room for GMOs in truly healthy food products, which is why it is truly vital that you understand the nature of GMOs and how they are oftentimes hidden in commercial food products. It may very well shock you to know just how prevalent GMOs are within the food supply. It’s truly amazing that modified products continue to go unlabeled despite being linked to organ damage — among a barrage of other conditions — in a prominent review of 19 studies.
In fact, nearly 93-95% of US soybeans are genetically modified in order to resist powerful weed-killers that were found to be killing the actual soybeans as well as the weeds. Following current trends, genetically modified food products will makeup the majority of the future food supply if a change is not made. For now, that change has been shot down by the FDA — the very organization tasked to defend public health. Just recently, the agency deleted around 1 million signatures from the GMO labeling campaign ‘Just Label It.’
This move means that consumers will continue to stay in the dark about whether or not what they’re eating is compromised of genetically modified ingredients. And it’s not just corn and soybeans, other commonly modified food staples include:
Tobacco Industry Forced to List Ingredients Used in Their Products
Mike Barrett
NaturalSociety
….There are over 4,000 individual compounds identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke, with at least 60 of them being known carcinogens. How would you feel after finding out that with every cigarette comes a dose of insecticide, car exhaust, gas chamber poison, ant poison, floor cleaner, mothballs, and nuclear weapon material? The fact is, there are hundreds of chemicals in tobacco products (and cigarettes especially) that people don’t even know about.
Insecticide – nicotine
Car exhaust – carbon monoxide
Gas chamber poison – hydrogen cyanide
Ant poison – ammonia
Mothballs – naphthalene
Nuclear power – radioactive compounds
(NaturalNews) There are approximately 180 million people worldwide that are infected with hepatitis C. Of those with access to conventional treatment approximately 20 to 50 percent do not respond to therapy. The likelihood of responding to treatment is largely determined by the genotype of the virus. Genotype 1 is the most common in the United States and it is also one of the most difficult to treat. The current standard of care for treatment of hepatitis C is interferon injections combined with…
(NaturalNews) When it comes to skin cancer, Big Pharma offers only topical chemo creams and surgery. The chemo creams often don’t work but often do cause ugly, painful side effects. Removing skin cancer tumors surgically usually results with tumors resurfacing sooner or later. Surgeries often leave ugly scars. However, there are inexpensive, effective, safe cures for curing skin cancer that are banned by the mainstream medical monopoly, which are not publicized by the mainstream media. A relatively…
(NaturalNews) Foods that have an incredible array of health benefits that go well beyond just their nutrient value are considered Superfoods. These foods are typically loaded with a combination of critical fatty acids, anti-oxidant phytonutrients and essential amino acids. Blueberries contain an extraordinary amount of unique phytonutrients and impressive anti-oxidant scores that make them a superfood. Blueberries are a native plant to North America. They grow in shrubs that can be anywhere from…
Halitosis is the medical term used to describe an offensive odor that comes from the mouth, producing bad breath. A number of causes may be responsible for this condition, notably periodontal disease, a disease resulting from bacteria in the mouth. Bacteria is also associated with plaque and cavities.
Small animal breeds and brachycephalic breeds (characterized by their short-nosed, flat-faced features; e.g., the Pug, Boston Terrier, Pekingese) are the most prone to periodontal and other mouth diseases, in large part because their teeth are close together.
Symptoms and Types
In most cases, there are no other symptoms aside from a bad odor emanating from the mouth. If the cause of the odor is a disease of the mouth, other symptoms may become apparent, including pawing at the mouth, inability to eat (anorexia), loose teeth, and excessive drooling, which may or may not have traces of blood.
Buy dog food or make it yourself, but make it healthy. Here are some important things to add (or not add) to your dog’s diet.
These days we often hear reports about dog foods that can harm our pets. In 2007, over one hundred dog food brands — some even well known brands — were recalled due to a tainted ingredient which was imported for China, making some dogs sick and killing others. More recently, salmonella has become a concern for various dog food items.
As responsible dog owners, we need to know how to read complicated dog food labels. Or better yet, feed our dogs with a healthy, well-balanced meal made at home.
So what is a healthy, well-balanced diet for your dog?
Whether you buy canned food from stores or prepare your dog’s meals at home, you have to ensure that the following ingredients are included in your dog’s diet: protein, carbohydrates, and fiber.
The most important ingredient is protein. In the past, dogs primarily survived on a diet of meat. This ensured that they consumed large quantities of protein, essential for energy. Fortunately, your dog is not as picky as you are when it comes to the cut of meat or the part of the body the cut comes from. In fact, it is the cuts of meat that we are least likely to eat that are best for dogs and therefore, they cost much less at your local butcher or grocery store. Ask for green tripe (the lining of a cow’s stomach), liver, heart, kidneys; all of these parts are high in concentrated nutrients and form an important piece of your dog’s lifetime development. Eggs and legumes are other sources of protein easily found at the store.
While it is not needed in as large of a quantity as protein, carbohydrate is another ingredient that is essential to a dog’s well-being. It is found in high concentrations in cereal grains such as rice, wheat, corn, barley and oats. Carbohydrates can be used in small amounts as fillers, or added in the form of green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, celery, and broccoli, to name a few. Carrots are also beneficial. Along with being a great source of carbohydrates and fiber, they also contain vitamin A and Beta-carotene, which is good for eyesight. Fibers assist in moving waste through the digestive track, improving intestinal health. Easily digestible, or soluble, carbohydrates are excellent sources of fiber. This category is mainly comprised of fruits that are part of your diet, such as apples, pears, and oranges (but ask your vet which fruit are okay for your dog; some fruits are poisonous for dogs).
A global “Smart Grid” program is being implemented which is blasting homes and businesses with more electromagnetic radiation than human beings have ever been subject to in human history. It is utterly preposterous to assume this will not lead to major human epidemics.
We must now face the very serious problem that the institutions, government, corporations and foundations, that are supposed to be serving our interests are deliberately violating, exploiting, endangering and assaulting us.
This video exposes electromagnetic radiation (EMR) as a major danger and violation to all current and future generations.
Sponsored by FreedomTaker (d’o't’c'o’m)
The hidden (sick) agenda behind chemtrails
By Jonathan Landsman,
(NaturalNews) We, the people, are under attack by a small group of mad scientists, out-of-control government agencies and profit-seeking billionaires pretending to “save the earth” from global warming. These “global control-freaks” want to manipulate weather patterns – in order to dominate the Earth’s resources. In reality, military programs like HAARP and chemtrails which over-heat the atmosphere and poison the sky (and farmland) seriously threaten all life on this planet. (keep reading -with an…
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