Boy. Go away to Michigan for a few weeks in July, and a lotta crucial stuff gets through the goalposts. As you'll doubtless recall, I've blogged here before about animal rights activists protesting foie gras production, and trying to make restaurateurs stop offering the delicacy to diners.

Well. Greatly disappointing Maude - er, actress Bea Arthur - the American Veterinary Medical Association isn't down with the anti-foie gras program.

MINNEAPOLIS, July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- In a unanimous decision, the American Veterinary Medical Association's House of Delegates (HOD) has defeated a resolution opposing the practice of force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras.

In their discussion, the HOD considered their obligations to animals, society, and veterinary medicine. However, because limited peer-reviewed, scientific information dealing with the animal welfare concerns associated with foie gras production is available, and because the observations and practical experience of HOD members indicate a minimum of adverse effects on the birds involved, the HOD did not support the resolution opposing force feeding used to produce foie gras.

In the meantime, a Birmingham, Alabama television station offers this recipe for "Seared Foie Gras, Truffled Organic Greens and Red Wine Reduction."

And here maybe some a y'all thought Southren' folk were jes' Backward Bubbas. Wrong-o. Plus which: betcha they'd know what to do with a sage grouse down there, if they've got any.

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 8, 2005 06:32 PM