Banning Things - Foie Gras Fighting

You may not be aware of this, but California is set to impose a ban on a HUGE problem... foie gras. Yes, this massive, far-reaching problem on all of humanity has been addressed by LAW.

Wait... what?

Have you even HAD foie gras? Ever? It's not something I have had more than, hm, let's see, once. Yes, once. This is an extreme delicacy for rich people. This is rich-people's problems. You don't hear "regular" peeps complaining about how the foie gras market is just terrible this week. And  yet, this is an issue we felt the need to pass legislation on. Yes, there is a BAN on something that is barely register-able in everyday life. We have taken time and energy and used it on... this. Not plastic bags choking the world. Not BPA. Not formaldehyde in Brazilian Blowouts. Not - oh no don't even think it - junk food that killing us and our kids... Nope, we choose to bad a food that is barely eaten by anyone but the richest of restaurant patrons and snooty parties catered by snooty high-falutin' people with too much money anyway. No once have I heard anyone say, "Oh, foie gras? No, we just had that for dinner yesterday!"

Is the way they produce foie gras terrible? Yes. It is. Do I approve of this treatment? Of course not. There's a reason I eat meat but not veal. I don't approve of methods for raising veal, personally, and I wish it wasn't like that, but do I try to ban veal? No, I try to educate people and get them to think about maybe not eating it as much. With what they do to ducks and geese, we should educate the public and let them decide for themselves to stop encouraging the industry. But... oh, wait... the people who actually consume this product are not exactly the kind who care about un-bathed tree-huggers, right? (Oh what wonderfully sweeping generalizations in this post! Love it!)

What I'm saying is, what I'm asking, is WHY are we expending this energy and time passing laws on things like this? By all means, get the word out there, lobby for the animals to not get treated that way, but ban this? WHAT exactly is the point? It is SUCH a tiny market that the effect you are hoping to have... you know, I don't even know. But come on. Foie gras?? You are creating a black market for this where the birds will probably be treated even worse. It's greed that makes them force-feed them anyway. The liver has to be as fat as possible... a normal bird witha  normal liver won't do because the upper echelon need their foie gras to

You know, I can't even continue that thought. This whole thing is so bizarre to me. Standing outside shops and restaurants with pictures of force-fed ducks would do the trick. But banning? Really? Ya missed the mark on this one. WAY big time.

"Hey, look, there's a cancer victim over there who lost their health insurance and is dying alone on the street." "SHHH!!! Someone's eating foie gras! That's so terrible! Quick, pass a law!"