Foie gras ban: California can keep it, court says

Foie gras ban upheld by federal appeals court. Producers of the fatty liver, who are suing the state, pledge to keep fighting California's foie gras ban.

|
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/File
Chef and owner Josiah Slone, right, prepares a foie gras dish at Sent Sovi restaurant in Saratoga, Calif., in May. On Friday, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California's ban on selling foie gras will stay in place while a lawsuit seeking to repeal it is pending in a Los Angeles trial court.

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that California can keep in place its ban on the sale of foie gras.

In doing so, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals signaled that a lawsuit filed by foie gras producers seeking to invalidate the California law was on its last legs.

The appeals court said the producers of the delicacy — the fatty liver of a force-fed goose or duck — "failed to raise a serious question that they are likely to succeed on the merits" of the lawsuit. The producers wanted the appeals court to lift the ban while their lawsuit is under consideration in a Los Angeles federal court.

The three-judge appeals panel rejected the producers' arguments that the ban illegally interferes with commerce and is too vaguely worded, among other claims, indicating the court's doubts about the underlying lawsuit in the process.

The ruling upheld a lower court decision, which expressed similar skepticism about the lawsuit filed last year by Canadian and New York producers of foie gras.

Nonetheless, Marcus Henley, the operations manager of New York's Hudson Valley farm, said he and his lawyers would continue to fight the California law. Henley said lawyers would appeal Friday's ruling while continuing to argue in the Los Angeles district court for the invalidation of the California law.

"This isn't like fireworks, nobody is being harmed by foie gras," said Henley, who noted some California consumers continue to legally order foie gras online.

The California law bars state farmers from force-feeding birds with a tube, the procedure used to produce foie gras. It also bans sales of the delicacy.

The Legislature concluded tube-feeding birds to engorge their livers is cruel.

Chicago passed a similar law but later repealed it.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Foie gras ban: California can keep it, court says
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0831/Foie-gras-ban-California-can-keep-it-court-says
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe