La Grande Boucherie in downtown D.C. serves a foie gras terrine with cherries and crostini. In Georgetown, 1789 Restaurant and Bar prepares its duck liver mousse as a torchon.
But those menu items may soon go the way of the dodo. An initiative to ban the production and sale of force-fed duck and goose liver in D.C. made it onto the November ballot, according to the city’s election board.
To make foie gras, birds are “force-fed several times a day with so much corn and oil that their livers become diseased,” said Natalie Fulton, spokesperson for Pro-Animal DC, which spearheaded Initiative 86.
A slew of restaurants and butcher shops sell foie gras. Among the most vocal is Butterworth’s chef and owner Bart Hutchins, who is “incredibly disappointed” the measure is on the ballot.
Hutchins said foie gras is one of the best products on Earth. While force-feeding sounds bad, he said, it “does not harm ducks.” The farmers “do an incredible job,” whereas other animals cultivated for consumption are often treated worse, he said.
Fulton opposes other factory farming practices too, but a foie gras ban is an easier sell: “Can you imagine what would happen if we tried to run a ban on chicken?”
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