Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese to induce pathological liver enlargement. The welfare evidence against the practice is among the strongest for any food product.
The scientific welfare case against foie gras production is essentially settled. Gavage causes oesophageal lesions from repeated tube insertion. Forced overfeeding produces a disease state — steatosis — that impairs liver function and causes abdominal distension. Birds avoid gavage operators, demonstrating that the experience is aversive rather than, as some producers claim, an extension of natural pre-migratory hyperphagia. The product's existence depends on inducing a pathological condition in birds through a process they actively resist. Unlike most farming practices where welfare reform within the system is possible, foie gras production cannot be made humane — the welfare harm is intrinsic to the production method itself.