Goose farming encompasses both general meat production and foie gras production, which represents one of the most ethically contested practices in animal agriculture.
Foie gras production is one of the clearest cases of deliberate welfare harm in animal agriculture. Force-feeding causes the liver to expand to pathological proportions, creating pain, difficulty breathing, and severe locomotion impairment. The industry attempts to justify this as mimicking natural pre-migration hyperphagia, but the comparison does not withstand scrutiny — wild geese gain weight gradually over weeks, not through tube-forced rapid engorging. The bans enacted by many countries reflect a consensus that this practice cannot be reformed into welfare acceptability.