9.16.22 - Judge orders NYC not to start enforcing foie gras ban in November
' An ongoing New York legal clash over fattened duck liver is part of larger national wrangling about who can dictate the treatment of animals raised for food.
In the latest development in New York, a state Supreme Court judge in Manhattan ruled Thursday that New York City cannot start enforcing its ban against the sale of foie gras, intended to take effect Nov. 25, until the settlement of a legal challenge to the ban's constitutionality by Hudson Valley duck farms.
The brief decision granted the farms' motion to prevent the ban's implementation before the underlying legal issues in the lawsuit are resolved. The judge in the matter, Acting Supreme Court Justice J. Machelle Sweeting, has not yet ruled on New York City's cross-motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
In May, the plaintiffs — Hudson Valley Foie Gras and La Belle Farms, both in the town of Liberty in Sullivan County — sued New York City. They're seeking to have the state prevent the ban's implementation because, the suit argues, it violates a section of state agriculture law that protects farmers against local laws that "unreasonably restrict farm operations located within an agricultural district," as La Belle and HVFG are.
Meanwhile. the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments next month in a case with national implications over a California law that prohibits the sale within the state of products from animals not raised according to California standards, regardless of where the products originate.
The foie gras suit says the ban would critically impact the Hudson Valley farms because more than 25 percent of their sales are to New York City restaurants that serve the delicacy, which is the liver of ducks or geese that are force-fed for the last two to three weeks of their lives. The two businesses together produce virtually all of the nation's foie gras. Only one other farm in the country, located in Minnesota, sells foie gras commercially.
In addition to arguing that the ban would violate state agriculture law, the suit says the prohibition — called Local Law 202 and passed by the New York City Council in 2019 by a vote of 42-6, with a three-year delay on taking effect — is invalid because it conflicts with state and federal laws that permit the production and sale of foie gras. Finally, the ban attempts to control farming practices more than 80 miles from New York City and thus beyond the City Council's jurisdiction, according to the suit.
At the heart of the dispute is the force-feeding process, called gavage in French. Anti-animal-cruelty forces have for years maintained that gavage is inhumane because, two or three times a day for the final weeks of a bird's life, a tube is inserted into its throat and cornmeal is injected for several seconds, causing the birds and their livers to fatten fast. Foie gras producers say a duck is not harmed by force-feeding, noting that the bird's hard esophagus is designed to swallow whole fish and that ducks lack gag reflexes. '