Guys am i right or over sensitive

[John Gryphon]

In the Charente three or four years ago, took a bucket and joined other French people collecting Oysters at the bottom of a very low Spring tide. Got back to a grassy area, bottle of chilled White, freshly baked baguette, and feasted on the freshest ever Oysters……..Sheer and absolute food heaven.

Having toiled on piling barge`s we often pulled and replaced pilings in Qld,oysters were on tap.Grabbing a big screwdriver and into them was the order of the day.
I also cast netted prawns off the deck and gobbled them down raw too,even whiting i peeled and ate like a cob of corn on the spot.... mm mmm!

 

[Morkai]

some infidels cook them with bacon and Worcestershire sauce.

They need a dozen quilts with the rattan across their buttocks.

oyster beignets are lovely though.

 

[Pete1774]

Dont class myself as a sensitive type but one of our organisations had a lot in a recent auction of a made to order Foie Gras
Me and a good number of other members objected on welfare grounds - and didnt think we should be seen to be supporting what i believe is a barbaric practice.
We were also concerned that members of the public may see this and associate field sports and conservation again with the above.

Genuine thoughts please

I have no particular desire to eat Foie Gras but I don't like the idea of a small group of individuals trying to impose their opinions on the rest of us. If you don't like it don't buy it and don't eat it. There are already enough members of the Ban-it Brigade, e.g. Packham et al trying to ban shooting of birds and animals or vegans wanting to compel us to adopt their misguided dietary ideas, because they believe that they a right and the rest of the world is wrong. If you are concerned about animal welfare then what about the way lobsters are cooked, or halal and kosha slaughter, or chicken meat production? Allowing vorciferous minorities to dictate what the rest of us can or can't do is the road to hell.

 

[User00035]

Having toiled on piling barge`s we often pulled and replaced pilings in Qld,oysters were on tap.Grabbing a big screwdriver and into them was the order of the day.
I also cast netted prawns off the deck and gobbled them down raw too,even whiting i peeled and ate like a cob of corn on the spot.... mm mmm!

If you examine the masonry behind the scenes on the average medieval cathedral in the UK, the joints are riddled with oyster shells. They were cheap, plentiful protein in times past and were brought in bulk to feed the workforce. If an ashlar stone isn't perfectly square or has a heavy face it can settle out of plumb, so masons used oyster shells as wedges to keep stones true until the mortar had cured. On face work they knocked them back and pointed them over, but look somewhere out of sight, like a stair case or gallery wall, they just whacked them off with a hammer and left the shell showing in the mortar joint.
Take apart pre-19th century masonry and you likely have a pile of oyster shells at you feet.

 

[jall55]

I have no particular desire to eat Foie Gras but I don't like the idea of a small group of individuals trying to impose their opinions on the rest of us. If you don't like it don't buy it and don't eat it. There are already enough members of the Ban-it Brigade, e.g. Packham et al trying to ban shooting of birds and animals or vegans wanting to compel us to adopt their misguided dietary ideas, because they believe that they a right and the rest of the world is wrong. If you are concerned about animal welfare then what about the way lobsters are cooked, or halal and kosha slaughter, or chicken meat production? Allowing vorciferous minorities to dictate what the rest of us can or can't do is the road to hell.

Indeed but it is even banned to produce it in the UK . Our sport represents and provides free living - hopefully quickly despatched food. This is the exact opposite in my mind of what this product is all about.

The various slaughter methods you suggest may last for far too long but the more i examine Foie Gras the more it seems like simple torture

I am waiting on a call back from the organisation concerned - and if i do not like the answers i simply have the right to vote with my feet - and the other 50 members or so's i represent and enrol

 

[David T]

Never eaten it. Not from any moral standpoint just never had the opportunity. I also work in agriculture and shoot so don't feel conflicted by this at all or see any real connection to shooting.

The reality is that the public has no idea of where their food comes from and does not make the connection between a field of cows and meat/dairy products. Then, for instance after watching Panorama's latest nonsense, they get on their high horse about something they have no idea or comprehension about. The difference in food source awareness between my parents generation and the kids of today is staggering but worryingly where will it stop ? Do any of you remember Jamie Oliver holding a leek up in front of some school kids and getting blank stares when he asked what it was ?

 

[jall55]

Never eaten it. Not from any moral standpoint just never had the opportunity. I also work in agriculture and shoot so don't feel conflicted by this at all or see any real connection to shooting.

The reality is that the public has no idea of where their food comes from and does not make the connection between a field of cows and meat/dairy products. Then, for instance after watching Panorama's latest nonsense, they get on their high horse about something they have no idea or comprehension about. The difference in food source awareness between my parents generation and the kids of today is staggering but worryingly where will it stop ? Do any of you remember Jamie Oliver holding a leek up in front of some school kids and getting blank stares when he asked what it was ?

I think the more i think about this the penny id dropping with me that i do know where this food comes from and therefore i must act to stop its use to raise money for an organisation that represents field sports and conservation and indeed me and mine.

I have raised my concerns with the hierarchy

I i hear nothing back as stated - come renewal time i shall move me and all my members elsewhere

Our organisations must listen and engage with us

 

[User00035]

At issue here isn't the method of despatch, it's the fact that before it is slaughtered the animal is reared in a way that is tantamount to torture. A foie gras liver is essential a liver with sclerosis. As mentioned earlier, I liken it to the rearing white veal calves in tiny stalls in the dark on a milk diet that scours their guts, just to get white meat. That seems to me needless cruelty which was why it was rightly outlawed in the UK. I'm sure there are better ways to enrich a goose liver after slaughter as part of the cooking process than torturing the poor creature while it's still alive.

 

[opticron1]

Pete1774 makes some good points.....there's an increasing number of instances where people are foisting their opinions on others as to how to live their lives and what should and shouldn't be "allowed".
We seem to be moving towards a society that spends too much time on the minutiae of daily goings on and ignores the real challenges in life.
I bid (unsuccessfully) on a couple of items in the auction, I didn't bid on the Foie Gras, but felt if someone is kind enough to offer a lot then it is up to the bidder to judge whether it's morally ok or not. You never know, there may be a way of creating duck liver pate without the force feeding part.... The fact that the lot was offered wouldn't stop me from maintaining my membership of the GWCT....

 

[enfieldspares]

I used to eat it at work as [art of the menu every Sunday when I worked in Paris. That as a starter and a chateaubriand for the main. The controversial part is the process of "gavage" as even the greediest goose or duck would never eat that much grain. Essentially you are eating stage one "fatty liver" sclerosis or cirrhosis of the liver. But few "luxury" foods don't have a downside....even a supposedly simple milkshake has caused the separation of calves from their mother and their soon thereafter slaughter and what happens to male chicks on hatching in the poultry industry is well documented on You Tube.

 

[NoIDeer]

Saw gavage being demonstrated at a village fete in Vitrac, Dordogne. The geese were almost jumping onto the fat old lady's lap that was doing the deed. They didn't look distressed at all. I think the different production methods are a bit like comparing battery hens with true free range hens, worlds apart.
Not a fan of the product but I do feel we shouldn't judge others by our own standards as others have said.

 

[John Gryphon]

If you examine the masonry behind the scenes on the average medieval cathedral in the UK, the joints are riddled with oyster shells. They were cheap, plentiful protein in times past and were brought in bulk to feed the workforce. If an ashlar stone isn't perfectly square or has a heavy face it can settle out of plumb, so masons used oyster shells as wedges to keep stones true until the mortar had cured. On face work they knocked them back and pointed them over, but look somewhere out of sight, like a stair case or gallery wall, they just whacked them off with a hammer and left the shell showing in the mortar joint.
Take apart pre-19th century masonry and you likely have a pile of oyster shells at you feet.

Good read Finch.

Of course every country has a "Limeburners Point" also,often multiples where shells were burned for lime for mortar.

 

[John Gryphon]

Well you did ask - attached without comment.

First thing for me when I hit France is to order a serving or two.

 

[shakey jake]

not convinced by the images ive seen. step bavk and imagine chris packham starting a wiki page describing anything we enjoy. would the representation be honest and fair?
we have some weird laws here, mink fur farming banned because people dont like it, is harvesting fur worse than harvesting meat?

 

[Lancaster]

Difficult one...
We allow Farrowing crates when breeding pork.
We shoot bull calves at birth in the dairy industry.
We have vast pens for Salmon on the West coast.
We have Chicken produced in huge numbers, in less than ideal conditions, to meet the market demand because folk won't pay for free range.

Foie Gras is a luxury, but rather than making a point about one product, shouldn't we all be considering what we put on our plates?

Rose Veal is one product that I really support when I can get it.
It maximises the value of the cow, it reduces waste, both by converting the otherwise dead calf into income for the farmer, and pays for some of the extra feed that the cow has eaten during pregnancy.
People who dislike the idea of eating Veal should really try it, Rose Veal/Beef from a Dexter is sublime.

 

[kes]

As natural as possible and I agree with you OP it is a barbaric practice and custom is no excuse. If I am not mistaken farrowing crates are now outlawed but used in many EU countries (do as i say not ........)
I also do not see this as a shooting related practice or product - nor is cock fighting but it was seen as a 'country pursuit , or was; fois gras is the same type of thing.

 

[enfieldspares]

And probably the cruellest of all is the fish you eat as kippers, as sardines, as fish and chips, as smoked haddock. They die once out of water by suffocation in air.

 

[John Gryphon]

They die once out of water by suffocation in air.

So cruel yet so fkn tasty!

 

[jall55]

And probably the cruellest of all is the fish you eat as kippers, as sardines, as fish and chips, as smoked haddock. They die once out of water by suffocation in air.

Good point and again get that - and its not nice - but might take 10 minutes / an hour ?

These birds suffer for weeks

I know its hard to draw the line and in an ideal world it would all be flop - bang but with foie gras people are actually causing disease and suffering

To me thats just mental

 

[Jagare]

I remember when I started working in agriculture 57 years ago. The bosses mother still force fed chickens with the same method as force feeding geese. It was called, cramming. Was it any worse than modern methods of mass production of chickens and laying birds today?