Spring Sale: 20% off featured titles
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Award Winners
    • Signed Editions
    • Digital Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Book Club Subscriptions
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Read Rise Resist Gear
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store
McAfee Secure

Don't Miss

  • Spring Sale: 20% Off Select Titles
  • Must-Read Japanese Fiction Sale
  • Indiespensable #91: Gold Diggers
  • BOOX #25: The End Is Just the Beginning
  • Powell's Virtual Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books

Visit Our Stores


Sarah Reif: Storytime Rhyme: 13 Perfect Collections for Poets of All Ages (0 comment)
Jack Prelutsky’s The Dragons Are Singing Tonight has lived in my head rent-free ever since it entered the storytime rotation for my brother and me sometime in the mid-90...
Read More»
  • Karen Cushman: Learning From Millie's World (0 comment)
  • Keith Mosman: Must-Read Paperback Releases of Spring 2021 (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Foie Gras Wars How a 5000 Year Old Delicacy Inspired the Worlds Fiercest Food Fight

by Mark Caro
Foie Gras Wars How a 5000 Year Old Delicacy Inspired the Worlds Fiercest Food Fight

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Read an Excerpt

ISBN13: 9781416556688
ISBN10: 1416556680
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
$9.95
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

In announcing that he had stopped serving the fattened livers of force-fed ducks and geese at his world-renowned restaurant, influential chef Charlie Trotter heaved a grenade into a simmering food fight, and the Foie Gras Wars erupted. He said his morally minded menu revision was meant merely to raise consciousness, but what was he thinking when he also suggested -- to Chicago Tribune reporter Mark Caro -- that a rival four-star chef 's liver be eaten as "a little treat"? The reaction to Caro's subsequent front-page story was explosive, as Trotter's sizable hometown moved to ban the ancient delicacy known as foie gras while an international array of activists, farmers, chefs and politicians clashed forcefully and sometimes violently over whether fattening birds for the sake of scrumptious livers amounts to ethical agriculture or torture.

"Take a dish with a funny French name, add ducks, top it all off with celebrity chefs eating each other's livers, and that's entertainment," Caro writes. Yet as absurd as battling over bloated waterfowl organs might seem, the controversy struck a serious chord even among those who had never tasted the stuff. Reporting from the front lines of this passionate dining debate, Caro explores the questions we too often avoid: What is an acceptable amount of suffering for an animal that winds up on our plate? Is a duck that lives comfortably for twelve weeks before enduring a few weeks of periodic force-feedings worse off than a supermarket broiler chicken that never sees the light of day over its six to seven weeks on earth? Why is the animal-rights movement picking on such a rarefied dish when so many more chickens, pigs and cows are being processed on factory farms? Then again, how could the treatment of other animals possibly justify the practice of feeding a duck through a metal tube down its throat?

In his relentless yet good-humored pursuit of clarity, Caro takes us to the streets where activists use bullhorns, spray paint, Superglue and/or lawsuits as their weapons; the government chambers where politicians weigh the ducks' interests against their own; the restaurants and outlaw dining clubs where haute cuisine preparations coexist with Foie-lipops; and the U.S. and French farms whose operators maintain that they are honoring tradition, not abusing animals. Can foie gras survive after 5,000 years? Are we on the verge of a more enlightened era of eating? Can both answers be yes? Our appetites hang in the balance.

Synopsis

As foie gras has emerged from its formerly obscure luxury-item status to become an everyday foodie favorite, the methods of its production have fallen under fervent inquiry. Caro joins in the debate about what people know--and what they choose not to know--about what they eat.

About the Author

Mark Caro is the entertainment reporter for the Chicago Tribune, whose writing on the issue of foie gras received honors from the James Beard Foundation and the Association of Food Journalists.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Be the first to share your thoughts on this title!




Product Details

ISBN:
9781416556688
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
03/01/2009
Publisher:
SIMON & SCHUSTER TRADE
Pages:
357
Height:
9.25 in.
Width:
6.125 in.
Grade Range:
General/trade
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2009
UPC Code:
2801416556680
Author:
Mark Caro
Subject:
History
Subject:
Food of animal origin
Subject:
Food preferences.

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$9.95
List Price:$25.00
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside

More copies of this ISBN

  • Used, Hardcover, $11.50
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2021 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##