AR-News: "N.Y. FARMERS POPULARIZES FOIE GRAS" in Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL-US)

[Karen Dawn]

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Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

June 10, 2004 Thursday Broward Metro Edition
 FOOD; Pg. 10

N.Y. FARMERS POPULARIZES FOIE GRAS

 Doug Blackburn Albany Times Union


A culinary revolution is being hatched in the southern Catskills, one egg at
a time.

Izzy Yanay is eager to share what he's plotting: the democratization of foie
gras. While the liver of force-fed ducks is a pricey delicacy many people
have never sampled, Yanay, a duck-breeding expert, envisions a day in the
not-too-distant future when fat-rich foie gras will be in every grocery
store in America, as popular here as it is in France.

He knows he has his work cut out for him. "Face it, most people don't know
what foie gras is," Yanay says. "If you put foie gras in the supermarket
today for free, nobody's going to touch it. We are going to have to focus
our efforts on educating people in order for this to happen."

Yanay and Michael A. Ginor took a bankrupt poultry farm in Ferndale, N.Y.,
and turned it into a business responsible for more than half of the foie
gras produced in the United States.

The kings of foie gras sell 220 tons of the pale golden duck livers
annually, an average of 7,500 pounds per week. They would have to increase
their production dramatically, Yanay says, in order to make enough for
grocery stores nationwide.

Foie gras (pronounced fwah grah) translates to fattened liver. A luxury food
with few rivals, it has been popular in select circles for 5,000 years,
since ancient Egypt.

Premium foie gras (Grade A on a scale of A to C, based primarily on color
and shape) sells for between $28 and $36 per pound.

Foie gras is also controversial.

Many animals rights activists take issue with the three-times-daily forced
feeding of the ducks that takes place during their final month. This causes
the ducks' livers to grow to up to 10 times their normal size, from 3 ounces
to almost 2 pounds.

Politicians in several states, including New York and California, have
proposed legislation to ban foie gras production in their states.

Yanay insists that the ducks are not being mistreated.

He says the ducks naturally gorge prior to migration and that their long
esophagi are calcified. This allows a 2-foot-long metal tube to be inserted
through their mouths for feeding without harming the birds.