Foie gras ban worries Catskills community
New York City decision has Sullivan County, its major producers, in fear of financial disaster
In late 2019, the New York City Council voted to prohibit the storing, maintaining or selling of foie gras — the enlarged, fatty liver of a duck or goose. The law addressing animal cruelty concerns could prove devastating to the livelihoods of hundreds of people living in Sullivan County, 100 miles north of the city.
About 90 percent of the domestic foie gras in the country is produced by two farms in Ferndale: La Bella Farms and Hudson Valley Foie Gras, that work mostly in a cooperative business model, said Marcus Henley, manager of Hudson Valley. Both farms anticipate closing their businesses when the law takes effect next year.
The fallout of the foie gras ban highlights the tenuous relationship between rural regions and the metropolitan areas where agricultural products are sold. The ripple effect of losing two duck farms in Sullivan County
could be economically disastrous not just to the nearly 400 workers they employ, but to the local community that relies on the farms as an economic driver.
“If we don’t have the city, if we don’t have restaurants, we're basically going to shut down,” said Sergio Saravia, one of the owners of La Bella Farm. “There's no way we can feasibly pay the overhead without NYC restaurants.” About a third of their foie gras business goes directly to the city’s fine-dining restaurants. but “everything about the ducks generates money,” Saravia said.
Pre-pandemic, Hudson Valley Foie Gras slaughtered about 500,000 ducks per year that were raised for an average of 100 days before processing. In addition to foie gras, the breasts and legs of the animals are sold as retail or restaurant meat cuts, the bones and other parts are used in dog food, and the feathers are sold as down for clothing.
The City Council argues that producing foie gras is inhumane because it is derived from force-feeding animals in the weeks before they are slaughtered. The ban was praised by many groups at the forefront of the animal welfare movement, like Voters for Animal Rights and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. But foie gras producers believe the ban unfairly targets their product, which sells for around $125 per liver and is seen as a luxury good.
Saravia maintains that they produce foie gras using humane agricultural practices, like hand feeding using rubber tubes. Both farms invited city council members to check on the animals’ welfare, but no one came up to see how the farms work, Saravia said.
Regional ripple effect
For the farms, this is less a debate over animal welfare than an argument over the livelihoods of an agricultural community that is reliant on the industry.
“If we close down it’s not just those 400 employees. You have the mills, the tow truck companies, everybody that works around. This is going to be hundreds of people that are going to be out of work,” Saravia said.
Sullivan is already one of the poorer counties in the state. According to 2019 U.S. Census data, 16 percent of county residents live below the poverty line, a rate that tops the state average of 13 percent.
“People should have the choice if they want to eat a duck breast in a restaurant or in their home, they should,” said Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, who represents the 110th district, which encompasses the Ferndale area. “A lot of people would lose their jobs. It's important for our economy.”
Sean Nearing is a thirdgeneration owner of Cochecton Mills, a feed manufacturer that employs 24 people including the other owners (his brother, father and cousin). The mill has catered to mostly small, family-run dairy farms. But as the dairy industry has changed to favor bigger operations elsewhere, many smaller farms have closed, prompting Cochecton to work with other local farmers.
About 10 years ago, Cochecton started supplying feed to La Bella — and eventually Hudson Valley — as a way to diversify.
Nearing worries that if the duck farms close, then he will lose about 20 percent of his gross sales and have to lay off a quarter of his workforce. “Agriculture has a huge trickledown effect,” Nearing said.
Rural areas are very susceptible to industry changes that cause reverberations throughout an agricultural community.regional meat processing operations, like Hudson Valley Foie Gras, also become hubs for small farmers needing Usdainspected slaughter facilities. Hudson Valley said it offers poultry processing services for a charge at the farm to more than 200 farmers. Fewer and fewer of these local processors are available to small farmers as the meat industry has consolidated.
“In local rural communities, they are very often defined by a narrow set of industries. A particular industry in a region can have a very, very large effect on the economy,” said Todd Schmit, an agricultural economics professor at Cornell University.
When one industry is lost where there are fewer employment opportunities, the downward spiral of businesses shuttering gains momentum and money leaves the community.
“When you think of workers driving two coun
“If we close down it’s not just those 400 employees. You have the mills, the tow truck companies, everybody that works around. This is going to be hundreds of people that are going to be out of work.” — Sergio Saravia, one of the owners of La Bella Farm
ties away to work at a large manufacturing firm or a larger urban area, if those workers had opportunities more locally, they would spend more money locally and all the sorts of things that drive up an economy,” Schmit said.
The farms don’t just support other local businesses, they also help provide necessary social services, which would also be affected by potential farm closures.
La Bella Farm helps support Corona Self-help Center in Jeffersonville, which works with people with addiction and substance abuse. Hudson Valley Foie Gras provides financial assistance to Christ Healthcare Ministries, which offers free medical services in Ferndale and neighboring Orange County. The ministry clinics care for the largely immigrant workforce as well as the surrounding community.
“They (Hudson Valley Foie Gras) are a pillar in supporting us,” said Dr. Juan Goyzueta, medical provider for the Ferndale clinic and board member of Christ Healthcare Ministries. “Not only are they strong financial supporters, but they've given us the location to work and also the infrastructure.”
Hudson Valley outfitted a trailer on the farm complete with running water, electricity and Wi-fi when the upkeep of the health mobile began to cost too much for the ministry. The farm maintains the trailer and provides monthly financial assistance for their workers and the health of the community.
Hoping for a reversal
A somewhat obscure provision of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets called Section 305-A might provide some hope for overturning the NYC legislation. The state law says that local governments
“shall not unreasonably restrict or regulate farm operations within agricultural districts in contravention of the purposes of this article unless it can be shown that the public health or safety is threatened.”
The state Department of Agriculture and Markets could overrule local legislation, like the foie gras ban, because the restriction does not protect public health or safety but prohibits an agricultural area’s product based on perceived animal cruelty.
“(City council members) are controlling us by saying, ‘We are not going to restrict what you do, but you can’t sell it here,’” Saravia said. “You are effectively telling us we cannot farm because we don't have somewhere to sell it.”
The problem is that there is no timeline for when the agriculture department will make a determination. For now, the February reopening of restaurants in New York City — including fine dining establishments that are more likely to feature foie gras — will help, but the loss of white-tablecloth restaurant business due to the pandemic has been hard.
“PRE-COVID, we had budgeted to do $150 million in 2020. We ended up at a flat $132 million,” said Ariane Daguin, CEO of D’artagnan Foods, a major distributor of specialty foods. Total sales of foie gras — retail, restaurant, ecommerce — account for 7 to 8 percent of D’artagnan’s business and that doesn’t include the other duck products the company sells.
D’artagnan sources foie gras from Hudson Valley Foie Gras alone. But D’artagnan also relies on the farm to process chickens for them, accounting for $18 million of business a year.
For Marcus Henley at Hudson Valley, the pandemic has been a sneak peek at what business would be like without the NYC restaurant business. “It was actually a little bit worse. We’ve lost 75 percent during this period,” he said.
The cooperative between Hudson Valley and La Bella farms initially projected — before the pandemic — that the NYC ban would cost 25 percent of their businesses. That amount is only compounded by the nearly 25 percent already lost to California.
California’s ongoing war on foie gras production dates back to 2004 when a ban on forcefeeding ducks and geese shut down production within the state. The ban was repealed briefly in 2015 only to be reinstituted by rulings in 2017 and 2019. Finally, in 2020, a ruling clarified that foie gras is legal to sell to California-based consumers directly online, but restaurants are still barred from serving or reselling the fatty liver on menus.
Last summer’s ruling provided a glimmer of hope for producers in Sullivan County, but not enough for duck farmers like Henley .
“We've maybe gotten 5 percent of that business back,” he said, since California restaurants are still off the table as a customer. “I don’t think we are a viable business.”
Not easy to pivot
As the New York City foie gras ban looms, both farms have explored alternatives. They have increased their chicken production, and La Bella has been experimenting with raising quails, but the profit margins are not high enough to maintain their current production or workforce.
Foie gras production requires a unique infrastructure, and changing the farms’ production to compete with traditional poultry processors is not tenable for specialized farmers like La Bella and Hudson Valley. Hand-fed, foie gras ducks require special facilities and the cost to pivot is not enough to cover the overhead.
“Can we perhaps spin off an independent business that has 30 employees? Can we find export markets?” Henley said. “I don’t see new markets within the United States to replace it. There’s nothing like New York City.”
Ariane Daguin of D’artagnan is more optimistic.
“I’m not even planning for a day without foie gras in New York because it is not possible,” she said. “The chef is a painter, he has access to all different colors, this one color is going to be missing if the New York (City) Council has its way.”
“(City council members) are controlling us by saying, ‘We are not going to restrict what you do, but you can’t sell it here. You are effectively telling us we cannot farm because we don't have somewhere to sell it.”
— Sergio Saravia, one of the owners of La Bella Farm