In 1999, the Council of Europe issued a series of recommendations intended notably to redefine farming conditions in force-feeding. Among other measures, these recommendations featured the removal of individual cages and the implementation of solutions alternative to force-feeding.

“Protected cultural and gastronomic heritage”
In France, the Senate has passed an amendment to push back the application of these European recommendations to 2016. Better still, faced with the risks that Europe’s position will harden, in 2005 the French government adopted a new amendment that included foie gras in the “cultural and gastronomic heritage protected in France”. French foie gras producers can escape established… or future European rules. At the same time, they continue to benefit from financial assistance granted under the common agricultural policy.

A French exception
This attitude remains a very French exception. If certain countries have adopted the Council of Europe’s rules into their own laws, others are far from doing so. In most EU countries, the practice of force-feeding has purely and simply been banned. This is the case in Germany, Austria (6 provinces out of 9), Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and Sweden. And even Poland, a major producing country, abandoned this industry in 1999.
In the United States, the city of Chicago has banned the sale of foie gras in its restaurants and grocery stored since 2006. California and many other states have taken a stand against the cruel practices related to foie gras production. While consumption is not banned in Argentina and Switzerland, its production is.
One Voice is working to ensure that France adopts the rules and laws worthy of a country that respects living beings.

“An animal’s freedom of movement, taking account of its species and the experience acquired and scientific knowledge, must not be threatened in such a way as to cause it unnecessary suffering or damage".
Extrait des recommandations du Conseil de l’Europe