Credits: unitedsouls.usfa
I was reading about how Brazil is one step away from definitively banning foie gras, both production and sales as on April 28, the country's Chamber of Deputies approved Bill 90/2020... every time I hear about this food I always feel a lot of anger at how this practice is still treated as something normal just because it is associated with luxury and haute cuisine.
In case someone doesn't know, in the end we are talking about geese being force-fed through tubes inserted directly into their throats to artificially enlarge their liver, causing constant suffering and the process has been known for years and documented by various associations, these are not speculations.
And yet just by calling it with an elegant French name like “foie gras” with no hint to the animal and the process and serving it in a chic restaurant, suddenly all the violence behind it can be ignored.
Coming back to the Brazilian law currently being approved, it is true that there this type of industry and production is not huge, but the precedent could push other states to move in the same direction. Banning both production and sales sends a fairly clear message that certain practices are no longer acceptable in the contemporary world, that it is time to end gratuitous violence against animals, regardless of market demand.
This is a historic decision. Brazil has the opportunity to affirm that the extreme cruelty of force-feeding should have no place in food production. In a country with enormous relevance in the global agricultural industry, this advancement sends a powerful message: animal suffering cannot be treated as a luxury ingredient. – Sharon Núñez, President of Animal Equality.
Also because if someone saw that production method for the first time, they would probably find it disturbing without thinking too much about it. And instead those who buy it often either do not have the courage to confront it or bring up the argument of tradition or the fact that “it has always been done this way”, it is up to states like Brazil to act and put an end to all of this.
Honestly I find it hard to see the force-feeding of an animal down its throat as something a modern society should still consider normal and tolerate.
References: https://animalequality.org/news/2026/05/06/brazils-foie-gras-ban-set-to-make-history