{"id":162584,"date":"2026-03-13T17:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162584\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:41:07","slug":"nyc-will-soon-enforce-a-ban-on-this-luxury-food-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162584\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC will soon enforce a ban on this \u2018luxury\u2019 food in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York court said on Thursday, \u201cduck that!\u201d to foie gras, a so-called luxury food<\/a> produced by force-feeding ducks and geese.<\/p>\n

The NYS Appellate Division on March 12 unanimously upheld the city\u2019s ban on the sale of the product in restaurants. The ruling confirms Local Law 202, formerly Intro. 1378, which the NYC Council passed in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City officials can now enforce the ban on the French delicacy.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The law is set to fine businesses up to $2,000 per violation for selling the controversial product within city limits.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The legal challenge to the ban pitted animal rights advocates against advocates for the foie gras industry, which activists report kills approximately 300,000 ducks each year. Agriculture representatives sought to block the regulation in court.<\/p>\n

The campaign to enact the ban was led in part by advocacy groups, including Voters for Animal Rights (VFAR), who sought to restrict the sale of the products derived from specific production methods they deem cruel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA metal pipe is rammed into the esophagus\u00a0three times a day,\u201d Four Paws USA<\/a> describes on its website.\u00a0\u201cA mixture of\u00a0maize and pure fat\u00a0is administered through this pipe, intended to cause rapid weight gain and the\u00a0abnormal growth of the liver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foie Gras Gourment<\/a> offers another description of the dish on its website.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA good quality foie gras will always come from the liver of a duck or goose that has been raised in the open air, fed on locally grown cereals, deveined with precision, then seasoned with few good quality spices and cooked to perfection,\u201d the sales site describes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foie gras has been a legal challenge for more than five years.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ban has been on the books, but what happened was that the agriculture commissioner for the state of New York ordered the city not to enforce it by invoking a very broad, never-before-argued application of the state agriculture markets law,\u201d explained Bryan Pease, an attorney for the animal advocacy coalition.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the state said a citywide ban could harm upstate agriculture.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous when you actually analyze what the commissioner thought he could do here,\u201d Pease said. \u201cIn this case, the agriculture commissioner just rewrote the law, and the judge went along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Appellate Division overturned the trial court\u2019s ruling. Now, NYC has to enforce the law.\n<\/p>\n

VFAR reps highlighted the outcome of Thursday\u2019s decision as a significant achievement driven by grassroots efforts and volunteer organizing.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters For Animal Rights is overjoyed with this historic victory for animals and grateful that New York City\u2019s right to govern itself remains intact,\u201dAllie Taylor, president of VFAR, said. \u201cToday\u2019s ruling not only upholds the city\u2019s ability to make decisions in the best interest of its residents, human and nonhuman alike, but also shows the power of citizens coming together for justice and compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n

amNewYork contacted the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, as well as restaurant and hospitality groups in NYC, for their comments on the band and is awaiting responses.\n<\/p>\n

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), another member of the coalition to outlaw the liver-based food, applauded the ruling.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York City was right to keep the diseased livers of abused birds off the menu, and\u00a0PETA\u00a0is cheering the news that the city may finally enforce this ban, helping to spare countless ducks and geese the agony of being force-fed through tubes rammed down their throats,\u201d Tracy Reiman, president of the organization, said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former NYC Council Member Carlina Rivera supported the foie gras ban while in office. She called the process of producing foie gras inhumane in a 2019 New York Times<\/a> article.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most violent practices and it\u2019s done for a purely luxury product,\u201d she said in the article.\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, retailers that have reportedly refuse to sell the item include Costco, Sam\u2019s Club, Target and Whole Foods.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a momentous step forward in creating a kinder, more humane world, and it proves that meaningful change is possible when people refuse to accept cruelty as the status quo,\u201d Taylor of VFAR said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York court said on Thursday, \u201cduck that!\u201d to foie gras, a so-called luxury food produced by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1457,67023,1070,9,56,63,65,64,67024,613,55518],"class_list":["post-162584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animals","tag-foie-gras-ban","tag-food","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nys-agriculture-department","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-voters-for-animal-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}