Washington, DC voters will decide on November 3 whether to ban foie gras sales and distribution under Initiative 86. Activists qualified the measure with nearly 32,000 verified signatures; a producer says a DC ban could put at least a third of his 150 workers out of work.
Pro Animal DC spokeswoman Natalie Fulton said Washington is the country’s third-largest foie gras consumer and described the product as cruel. Jordan Grinor, a director at one of only two US commercial producers, disputes that view: he says wild ducks gorge before migration and describes force-feeding as traditional animal husbandry.
Butterworth’s chef-owner Bart Hutchins, the measure’s most prominent opponent, said a ban would threaten the city’s French restaurants and what he called its culinary heritage. Animal-rights campaigners say they want to follow places such as California and Pittsburgh, which have enacted laws against foie gras.
