Christmas was a-coming. In various corners of south-western France, the geese were getting fat.
But the sale of the foie gras they were on their way to becoming was putting no pennies in the hat of whichever old man runs the Harvey Nichols food hall. The stuff is banned there, as Mme Salut! discovered when she tried to buy some.
If we hadn't lived outside the UK for most of the past five years, we'd have known of course. Harvey Nicks stopped selling it "on ethical grounds" as long ago as the summer of 2007.
People who have followed me from Telegraph blogging days will know that I am rather fond of foie gras. I have no time for any of the fancy dishes in which it is cooked; that, for me, makes it unbearably fatty. Eaten cold, with unbuttered toast, it is a true delicacy.
But as I explain in my midweek column in today's edition of The National (which I shall reproduce below), it is not a dinner table treat I would defend if I were convinced that the production involved cruelty to ducks and geese.
Those who believe it does are utterly implacable in their hostility. I can say only that when I witnessed force-feeding in action, the one word that had no place in the description was force. The geese queued quite contentedly for their corn feed and there was not the slightest sign of distress.
In common with many meat-eaters, I feel occasional unease about the whole process of breeding animals for the main purpose of being killed to satisfy our appetites. In thought, at least, I could easily be a vegetarian. The trouble is that in practice, human ingenuity has made the eating of meat a highly pleasurable experience.
The anti-foie gras lobby will doubtless make further advances. It would, in truth, be no great hardship never again to be served it.
But I remain deeply sceptical of the hypocrisy at play. I share the view of those who say bad farming is bad farming whatever the product; if a genuinely independent study, should such a thing be possible, found that foie gras could be produced only by methods involving cruelty, that would be sufficient for me.
Until then, I shall continue to believe - on the only first-hand evidence so far available to me - that nothing worse happens to ducks and geese in the Périgord than to Highland cattle or the lambs of the Yorkshire Dales.
And this is the column.......
Killing with kindness?As a veteran of réveillons, sumptuous feasts without which the festive season in France would be incomplete, I know the importance of foie gras to the French palate.
If there has been an occasion in 20 years when the delicacy and I have not met at the table on Christmas or New Year’s Eve, it has slipped my mind.
But as I am not French, I am also aware of the controversy surrounding its production.
James Brennan’s fascinating article last Wednesday, weighing up the pros and cons and explaining how foie gras should be cooked (not at all for me; I eat it cold), offered a timely reminder of the difference of opinion. So did my wife’s experience when shopping in Knightsbridge during our London break.
Let us be blunt. Unless the impassioned animal lover Brigitte Bardot is a guest, the issues raised by le gavage – the force-feeding of ducks and geese that is crucial to the making of foie gras – would dominate few Parisian dinner table conversations. They were a long way from my wife’s mind when, among other French shoppers, she searched in vain for the product at Harvey Nichols. “Is there no demand?” she asked, fearing more credit-crunch fallout. “Oh yes, madam,” came the assistant’s stiff reply, “but we do not stock it on ethical grounds.”
Debate on foie gras often becomes heated. So I should declare that I do not defend being cruel to animals to be kind to diners.
I would stop eating foie gras if I believed that ducks and geese suffered more than other creatures we breed with the intention of killing them for food.
No, I am not an expert. Nor, I bet, are some of those clamouring for a total ban. But I have two pieces of anecdotal evidence, one for each side of the argument.
In 2006, when moves to outlaw foie gras in America were gathering pace, I interviewed a US-based French importer and staunch champion. I then travelled to her suppliers in south-western France; they gave me all sorts of reassuring bumf about how nice everyone was to the birds. They did not let me witness le gavage for myself, a spectacular own goal assuming they wished the world to know they had nothing to hide.
A year later, not far away, I visited a farm run by four generations of the same family and was not only permitted but encouraged to watch at feeding time.
There was not the slightest hint of ill-treatment. The geese actually formed a queue to have the funnel inserted into their throats and their necks massaged to ease the corn feed down.
Neither of my stories proves anything. But since the prohibitionist lobby seems likely to gain further ground in the West, I may become as grateful for the ready availability of foie gras in the UAE as my wife was to find what she was looking for in Harrods.
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