Dissenting voices argue that New York City has exceeded its jurisdictional boundaries by attempting to regulate the practice of force-feeding ducks, an activity predominantly occurring over 100 miles northwest in the Catskills, rather than within the city limits itself. Sergio Saravia, a foie gras purveyor, has vocally contested the 2019 law, which had been initially overturned by a lower court and is now navigating the appeals process. He characterizes it as ‘unwarranted’ coming from a local government that lacks its own duck farms.
The relationship between Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams, once close, has become strained due to ongoing challenges related to housing and services for the 100,000 migrants who have arrived in the city over the past year. The question arises: could a high-end menu item that Mayor Adams, mostly a vegan, wouldn’t consume anyway, further strain their relationship?
In November 2019, the New York City Council passed a bill banning the sale and service of foie gras, with it scheduled to take effect in November 2022. However, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets intervened, preventing the city from implementing the ban, citing that it unreasonably restricted the operations and on-farm practices of two foie gras farms under state law.
The Adams administration challenged this decision in court, and on August 3, an Albany County judge ruled in their favor, deeming the state’s order “arbitrary and capricious”. This ruling, revealed here for the first time, is not the end of the dispute. La Belle and Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the farms involved in the case, have filed an appeal.
Foie gras, like truffles unearthed with the assistance of pigs or lobster caught in sea floor traps, is a delicacy that becomes a luxury when it touches the palate. It is produced by force-feeding ducks via a plastic tube down their throats, a practice seen as animal abuse by some and as a culinary tradition dating back to ancient Egypt and cherished in France by others.
In the United States, foie gras is a niche food primarily supplied by two farms located in Liberty, New York, with one of them housing around 42,000 Moulard ducks at any given time, a population dwarfing the town’s human inhabitants of approximately 10,000.
Legal documents from both foie gras farms emphasized that New York City represents a significant portion of their sales, and losing this market could jeopardize their existence. Despite the impending ban, sales haven’t seen a decline, according to Saravia.
Almost four years after the ban’s passage, foie gras remains on menus at various high-end restaurants in the city. Interestingly, Mayor de Blasio, who signed the ban into law, has criticized foie gras as a luxury product created through animal force-feeding, while Mayor Adams, who has taken up the battle for the ban, has closer ties to the restaurant industry and high-end establishments that serve foie gras.
While the legal dispute revolves around restaurants versus animal rights, it also reflects a broader urban-rural and state-city power struggle. The mayor’s office declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, but animal rights advocate Feldman Taylor believes that the challenge to the municipal home rule law will keep Mayor Adams engaged in the fight. This law specifically applies to New York City and doesn’t dictate what duck farmers can or cannot do in upstate New York, allowing them to continue producing foie gras as long as it’s not sold in city restaurants or grocery stores.
