Silly goose

Pittsburgh is in crisis. The city is overwhelmed with homeless encampments, long established businesses are leaving the Golden Triangle. When people aren’t using the streets as toilets, they are using them as shooting galleries. We don’t have enough police and Pittsburgh City Council just rubber stamped the mayor’s budget, which this paper’s editorial board fears “could place Pittsburgh once again under state oversight in just a few years”.

But don’t panic just yet, our dynamic city leaders are acting to correct the city’s woes, beginning with a ban on fat ducks. Yes, city council’s plan to once again have Pittsburgh top the list of most livable cities hinges upon barring overweight ducks from city restaurants.

Relying on information from special interest animal activists and not from the farming community itself, city council has passed an ordinance banning the sale of foie gras, the liver of these overweight ducks. Certainly, our food system is not perfect and we could easily name other popular foods that are harvested from animals that some believe to have suffered to become part of the food chain. Has anyone thought of the millions of fish that are suffocated and crushed each day under the weight of the tons of other fish caught in large commercial trawl nets?

City leaders should allow restaurants and their customers to choose the foods they consume. Government leaders need to spend time and resources on issues that directly affect the viability and quality of life in our city.

ART INZINGA

The writer is the coordinator of the culinary program at the Community College of Allegheny County