Foie Gras

Author: Anu Karthik / Labels: ,

March 1st 2010

I had not heard of this until last Thursday when I received a forwarded e-mail with some information about the same. This translates into 'fat liver' and is a delicacy that is produced by force-feeding a goose and then purposefully fattening its liver. Maybe does not sound too bad in words but made me puke my breakfast almost when I saw the picture of the poor bird with the metal tube shoved down its throat and corn fed in. I cannot erase its eyes looking into mine ever I think, so helpless and as if making a plea. You can read more here . 

To clarify, I am not trying to advocate vegetarianism as I am not qualified and commit many crimes of my own. This e-mail only made me look a little bit deeper into how even though I am educated, I tend to take the easy way out and ignore many things as long as I am not exposed to it head on! For example, have I ever wondered how the cows whose milk I drink and the hens who eggs I eat are treated in their farms. I don't think any cow was made to be machine milked. Just mere internet browsing enlightened me that the male calves are killed or disposed off as soon as they are born and in general calves are separated from their mother as soon as they are born because the mother has to be milked. I cannot imagine that I am a consumer of this product.  You can read more here .

Where am I going with this, I don't know. I am thinking and need to think some more. For starters-the killer whales in Sea World used for entertainment, the animals in the circus, the granites in our homes, the diamonds on our hands, the crackers at Diwali - all gotten subjecting another to misery to bring a smile on our faces.  Is it worth it? How demeaning it is to see the king of the jungle jump to the tune of the ringmaster's whip? Why blame the whale for doing what comes to it naturally - it is not called a killer whale  so it can eat small pieces of tuna, is it?

I had to vent because I don't have answers but I hope my body follows my mind as I need to make some lifestyle changes. Easier said than done. Some things are easy to give up while some others not so much but maybe I can atone for some of the sins I commit by exploring alternatives and  giving back in other ways. I hope and pray.

6 comments:

Krishnapriya said...

so truly said..very nicely put. But like what you said, its is definitely a case for the body to take the lead as the mind is too weak to control the cravings!!!!

Anu Karthik said...

@ KP: more than cravings the difficulty I am really facing is that dairy is such a big part of our food pyramid. I could maybe use soy instead of milk, but what I do about yogurt? And too much soy is also injurious I hear. Not easy this one for sure.

Deepa said...

Thank you for writing about this. I just posted about it on facebook, with a link to your article. I have to read up more about cows / milk production in India.

Anu Karthik said...

@ deepa: thank you for the note. I think it is so cool that you have a blog where three generations write in, that is so precious! i am hopeful the dairy factory in india won't be this bad, sometimes it is better to be in a developing country than in a developed one i guess.

Unknown said...

natural foie-gras (not force-feed) is available.. but very expensive.. I found out about this during my roadtrip in bordeaux.

Anu Karthik said...

@ iamyuva: i guess just like eggs produced by cage free hens are more expensive, but the choice is finally ours to make in both cases I guess.

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