California’s new ban on the production and sale of foie gras took eight years to go into effect, but restaurants have wasted little time in finding creative ways to duck the law.
The delicacy sparked the ire of animal rights’ activists because it is made from the engorged livers of ducks or geese that are force-fed through funnel-like tubes. It became illegal in the state this month to make or sell food derived from force-fed birds.
However, restaurateurs and chefs are using loopholes and clever wordplay to keep the dish on the market, a sign that passions run high on both sides of the issue.
Photo: Bloomberg
Presidio Social Club management contends the law does not apply to them because the restaurant is on land administered by a federal agency. The club began serving foie gras again on July 14. Its owners say the state ban does not apply to them since the eatery is on federal land.
Chefs at Hot’s Kitchen in Los Angeles County and Chez TJ restaurant in Mountain View, California, are giving away foie gras as free additions, arguing that the ban does not explicitly prohibit distribution.
Other establishments, like San Francisco’s Palio d’Asti, are offering to have their chefs prepare any foie gras brought in by customers.
Rob Black, the executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, said these actions reflect how the law created an “environment where you don’t know what’s legal. It creates confusion what restaurants or distributors can or can’t do.”
The attempts to get around the ban have angered the man who introduced it in 2004, former California senator John Burton.
“Shame on them, it’s the law,” Burton said, adding that enforcing the law should focus on farms that force feed birds and not restaurants. “The bill has nothing to do with food; it has to do with cruelty to animals.”
Animal control officers have investigated one restaurant in San Francisco and plan to investigate another for selling foie gras. Representatives say restaurants that exploit loopholes put them in a bind.
“I think the law has some major loopholes, and we cannot extend the law,” Animal Care and Control Deputy Director Kat Brown said.
Elsewhere in the state, responsibility for enforcement is unclear. In Los Angeles County, the Department of Public Health plans to investigate restaurants that sell foie gras as part of its health inspections unless told otherwise, representative Angelo Bellomo said.
However, other agencies that can fine offenders do not have the means to do so.
“With budget cuts, this just isn’t something we can add to our plate right now,” said Marcia Mayeda, director of Los Angeles County’s Department of Animal Care and Control.
Legal experts say the Presidio Social Club might be on safe legal ground in defying the ban because courts have held that state regulations generally do not apply to federal property. They do not hold sway on Native American reservations either.
However, some business owners say they will follow the law even if they may not have to, including restaurants in national parks such as Yosemite. Some California casinos on Native American reservations also removed foie gras from their menus.
“We felt like the general public’s desire to have [foie gras] eliminated from menus in California was more significant than keeping it on the menu,” Thunder Valley Casino spokesman Doug Elmets said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”