A political official in southern France is urging the nation’s restaurants to stop serving California wines in response to the US state’s ban on foie gras.
California banned the sale and production of the French delicacy, a fatty goose or duck liver made by force-feeding the animals, under a law that took effect on July 1. Most restaurants in the state have removed the item from their menus.
“I call on all the restaurants in France that sell Californian wine to stop doing so in a show of solidarity for our foie gras makers and, more broadly, for all food makers,” said Philippe Martin, the president of the general council in the Gers department, near the Pyrenees.
The Gers, in the heart of Gascony, is an agricultural area known for goose foie gras. France produces more than 16 000 tons of foie gras annually, or two-thirds of the product sold globally, according to Mirepoix USA, a Nevada-based online foie gras retailer. The French consume 75 percent of the world production.
“This won’t have severe impact on the Gers region trade balance, let alone the French trade, or the California trade balance, but we had to send a strong signal because we think this is an unfair measure,” Martin said on Wednesday.
California produced 90 percent of the US’ $1.4 billion (R11.5bn) in wine exports last year, according to the Wine Institute in San Francisco.
Little was exported to France, said Terry Hall, a spokesman for Napa Valley Vintners, which represents 430 wineries in California.
“There’s not going to be a lot of California wine to boycott,” Hall said. “France is a major producer. They’re not keen on a lot of imports.”
France was the second-largest exporter of wines to the US behind Italy last year, according to the Commerce Department. French wine imports reached $253.5 million in the first quarter of this year.
“Why would you take it out on the wine industry, especially when Americans are an incredible supporter of the French wine market,” Hall asked.
This is not the first time that politics has intruded on culinary relations between the two nations. In 2003, the US House of Representatives responded to France’s opposition to the Iraq invasion by renaming the French fries served in its cafeteria “Freedom Fries”.
In California, the foie gras ban is pitting chefs against animal-rights activists. Restaurateurs say no one should dictate what people may eat, while the activists say force-feeding the animals through a tube in their esophagus is cruel. Alison Vekshin and Helene Fouquet