No appetite for foie gras protest among Kitsilano restaurateurs
FIONA MORROW

Globe and Mail Update

April 23, 2008 at 5:18 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — A campaign against the sale of foie gras in B.C. is sticking in the craw of local restaurateurs.

For the past five weeks, animal-rights group Liberation B.C. has put up TVs outside Kitsilano restaurant Gastropod and next-door eatery Fuel.

Liberation B.C. has targeted the businesses on Friday nights as part of its escalating protest against the production and sale of foie gras, screening disturbing and controversial footage taken undercover by Montreal-based Global Action Network at a Quebec foie gras farm and handing out leaflets to customers and passersby.

Foie gras, French for fat liver, is the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened by gavage - the animal is force-fed with corn mash direct to the gullet through a tube inserted down its throat.

Whether it's because of the alarming footage being played parallel to the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling window frontage, the general commotion generated by the protest or a concern for animal welfare, Gastropod chef and owner Angus An says his business is taking a real hit. Last Friday, for example, of the 45 people who had booked dinner reservations, only 22 showed up. Saturday - a protest-free evening - he served 82 diners. He is so concerned about the loss of revenue, this morning he is having his front windows partly frosted to obscure the view of the sidewalk. He has also made a plea on Facebook for fans of the restaurant to turn up this Friday and show their support.

"We realized that we have access to the same networks as Liberation B.C. and as many Facebook members," he said. "We have to generate a full room on Friday."

Next door, things are very different at Fuel, where the open kitchen faces the street, and pedestrians are regularly treated to the sight of whole pigs being butchered. "Business hasn't been affected at all," said chef and owner Robert Belcham. "Foie gras sales are up generally and on Fridays, [by] as much as 20 to 40 per cent."

The reputations of both Gastropod and Fuel are based on their commitment to local, organic, ethically produced food. Because of that, Mr. An and Mr. Belcham have been surprised to find themselves the target of animal-rights activists.

"That's what makes their use of foie gras so baffling to us," said Joanne Chang, spokeswoman for Liberation B.C. "Foie is neither local nor ethically produced."

Both restaurants source their foie gras from Aux Champs d'Élisé in Quebec.

The fact that foie gras is not an everyday food for most people is why the Vancouver-based group - which has previously protested against the Cloverdale Rodeo and outside fast-food chain KFC - decided it should be the focus of a new campaign.

"It really is not a big thing to give up," Ms. Chang argued. "It's an easy way to reduce a lot of unnecessary suffering."

The goal of the recent demonstrations was to raise awareness in the neighbourhood, she said. "Our greater goal is to get the sale of foie gras banned in B.C. and we will be moving on after this Friday to make this a citywide initiative."

Liberation B.C. has been in contact with 30 to 40 other local restaurants and retail outlets that stock foie gras and, Ms. Chang said, the group is discussing which business to target next.

The anti-foie-gras movement has been gaining international momentum. In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill to ban its production and sale in the state by 2012. Chicago has had a citywide ban since 2006 and in February of this year, Prince Charles ordered that the livers should no longer be part of any royal menu.

In Vancouver, award-winning chef Pino Posteraro, owner of Cioppino's restaurant in Yaletown, removed foie gras from his menu two years ago. "I love foie gras," he said. "But over time the methods of production in Quebec changed and the quality diminished."

Mr. Posteraro tried to gain support locally and in Quebec to reduce the size of the livers from one kilogram to 250 grams in order to reduce animals' suffering. "No one was interested, so I decided the only sustainable, ethical response was to stop selling it."

For Mr. An - who uses very little foie gras - there's another principle involved. "If I back down over this, the next campaign they mount, they'll be at my door first. They'll see me as a pushover."