The 2024 Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in Paris from July 26 to August 11 and aim to “responsibly offer a taste of France”.
Organizers claim to “focus on showcasing French food that is responsibly sourced, produced and consumed”, with 80% of the meals on offer being locally sourced. In an effort to provide sustainable, eco-friendly options, approximately 60% of the 13 million meals provided will be meat-free and plant-based. With the goal of putting “more plants on our plates,” dishes include vegetarian shawarma, quinoa risotto and even plant-based “tuna.”
Although we are pleased to see that the Commission is pressing ahead “Leaf on beef”, we were disappointed to see that foie gras will appear on the hospitality menu and will be served on site throughout the event.
The cruelty behind foie gras
Created by force-feeding, foie gras is a highly divisive product. Millions of ducks and geese each year are forced to consume unnatural amounts of food until their livers swell to 10 times their natural size. Each bird would be force-fed two or three times a day for several weeks, up to 63 times, until they were slaughtered.
Animal Equality has conducted more than a dozen investigations into the industry in France and Spain since 2012. The group has collected hundreds of hours of footage showing birds trapped in wire cages, having difficulty breathing, Eye infections, broken wings and beaks. Professor Donald Broom, an academic from Cambridge University, has studied the effects of the “ducting” process on animals. In his 2017 article, he concluded: “The results of this report are clear. Force-feeding severely reduces duck welfare.”
Foie gras on the menu
The discovery of foie gras on the Olympic Games menu comes after Animal Equality approached the President, CEO and CEO of the International Olympic Committee in April. In a letter, our President and Co-Founder – Sharon Núñez– welcomed the Commission’s efforts to promote environmental sustainability and asked for confirmation that foie gras would not be introduced. She writes that serving foie gras made by force-feeding would be “wholly inconsistent with the character of the intended event.”
We have not yet received a response, but through email exchanges with the Olympic hotel’s food service providers, we discovered that foie gras will be served to guests who have purchased hospitality packages. High-end hotels cost from 85 EUR to more than 9,500 EUR.
In a written statement, the Games’ caterers said:
Foie gras will not be offered as a separate dish in our culinary program during the Olympic Games. However, some recipes may include foie gras as an ingredient, such as in pâtés and local specialties. These dishes will make up approximately 0.1% of our total menu items throughout the Games.
However, any amount is too much. Every duck or goose suffers endlessly and needlessly from this cruel product. Marie-Pierre Pé, Director of Cifog – an agency representing foie gras farmers – even stated that the industry is increasing production “in preparation for the big event of the Olympic Games, where the whole world will come to France. .”
We will not accept this
Foie gras made by force feeding is extremely cruel and we are taking action to call on the Olympic organizers to consider why and remove this product from the hospitality menu.
Countries around the world are starting to ban their sale and import on grounds of animal cruelty. The process of force-feeding animals for human consumption is banned in many countries, including Denmark, Germany, Poland, Norway, Luxembourg and Türkiye. In 2014, Animal Equality successfully lobbied the Indian Government to stop selling foie gras, making India the first country in the world to ban the import and production of foie gras.
The Olympics are a beacon of international harmony, human achievement and friendship. Serving foie gras – a premium product, cruel to animals and illegal in many countries – disappoints those who believe in equality and solidarity and goes against the spirit of the Olympics .
Sharon Núñez, President and Co-Founder of Animal Equality
The Olympics provide a unique opportunity for the world to come together, but foie gras is an incredibly divisive dish. By putting more trees on a plate, the Paris 2024 Olympics offer a glimpse of a better, more sustainable future; That future must not include foie gras. The Commission should focus on honoring our common international interests: animal cruelty is not one of them. I strongly request the Committee to see the reason and remove it from the menu.
Abigail Penny, Chief Executive of Animal Equality UK
Imagining attendees eating the diseased liver of a tortured duck or goose at the Olympic Games is disturbing, to say the least. I am also extremely proud of my French heritage, but I am certainly not proud of force-feeding innocent animals, and neither should the Commission be.
Alexis Gauthier, Michelin-starred French culinary chef
Animal Equality revealed this discovery to hundreds of thousands of readers through Independence Today. This will raise awareness of the cruel production of foie gras and mobilize the public on this important issue. More action will follow!
DUCK PROTECTION
Even before hatching from their eggs, ducklings communicate with their close-knit family.
Protect these families by eating plant-based products and giving up animal products.
