Picture: Martin Meissner/AP
Go to a restaurant in York and you may soon find that foie gras is off the menu, following a motion by the city council to condemn sales of the product. While a ban within the city walls is out of the question, the council hopes that by taking a stand against the delicacy, it will encourage restauranters and shopkeepers in York and beyond to think twice about stocking the product.
That's the plan, but it seems to me the whole business is a bit of a distraction. Leaving aside the fact the motion seems to be completely toothless, it seems the council has picked an obvious and easy target, and missed an even bigger problem of animal cruelty. While foie gras appears on only a few menus in the city, chicken is on offer all over the city, and you can bet most of it isn't free range.
Free range chicken is still a minority purchase - there are far fewer packs of fresh free-range chicken in supermarkets than there are packs of chicken raised in less humane conditions. Those same menus that might include foie gras may also feature the term "free range" next to the chicken dish, suggesting this still has some cache, that's it's a sign of quality rather than the norm.
The fast food chains talk of supply chains and welfare, but none actually make the claim that the chickens they cook up and sell are allowed to roam around in the open before they end up in a burger or a nugget.
The argument about whether foie gras can be produced ethically could run and run, but we already know there are humane ways to raise chickens to eat. So why doesn't the council back those, and look towards a ban on battery chicken?
