A Vegetarian, By Choice

I have been a vegetarian for practically my whole life, though I never really considered having non-veg food to be morally incorrect. In-fact, to a certain extent, I thought having non-veg food is probably better as it is more nutritious. If someone asks me, why I am a vegetarian, my reply typically is, “I am a vegetarian because I grew up that way. I find it hard to change myself now”. Around a month back, though, I went for dinner with VP of my company, Eric at a funky restaurant in Boston. I have always looked out for new delicacies, and that restaurant had options I never heard before. One of them was foie gras, and the description mentioned that it was filled with almonds, some vegetables, and pineapple. That surely excited me, and I almost ordered that dish. Until Eric warned me: foie gras is not only non-veg; it is probably the most extreme non-veg one could find.

Upon returning home, I did some google search, and I was horrified to read about it. Foie gras means fat liver, and is from a duck or goose. Now, that’s fine to me. But, wait, there’s more to it. To enhance the taste of liver, the goose or duck is force-fed for ~15 days to fatten the liver. And how are they force-fed? Well, by inserting a tube all the way down to the esophagus of the duck and inserting the food with a pump. Each duck or goose is fed around 2 kg of food three times a day, and each pumping takes 2-3 seconds. Many of the ducks and geese are hurt during the process; some die. The pipes cause serious damage to the throat and esophagus, sometimes leading to their death. Some of the birds cannot even drink water because their neck is so badly damaged during repeated pipe insertions that water sprinkles out from the neck to the outside air. The ones who are alive during the 15 days face a torturous life, as they cannot move because of over-feeding.

I found some scary pictures of duck who have been force-fed, but they are way too gross to be posted here. Go to http://www.goveg.com/photos_ducksgeese.asp and look at the photogallery. I am just adding this picture that compares the size of liver from a force-fed duck to that of a normal one.



That night, I guess, I was happy to be a vegetarian.