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Farm, Production Part II, image - Coggle Diagram

- - - - History of foie gras
      - For VS against foie gras
  - - - Forged Gras by Forged By Vow: Lab-grown foie gras
        
        Is this still considered foie gras? Is this still luxurious?
        
        The target consumers of Forged Gras are restaurants that want to stand out by using a unique ingredient, or restaurants that were already selling foie gras, but had to remove them due to bans (Reynolds, 2024)
        
        Given the target consumers, Forged Gras was created specifically as a luxury ingredient
        
        Needs to be marketed as a high-end, expensive ingredient to sustain the business: Producing less volume, but selling at high prices
        
        Considered a luxury, but for different reasons:
        
        The novelty of having lab-grown foie gras
        
        Paying premium prices for an environmentally sustainable product (Reynolds, 2024)
        
        Made by cultured Japanese quail (51% Japanese quail cells) (Forged By Vow, n.d.)
        
        Sold in restaurants in New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore (Lok, 2025; Reynolds, 2024)
        
        Challenges
        
        Expensive:
        
        Lab-grown meat requires expensive materials and the process is difficult to scale (Reynolds, 2024)
        
        Could retail for over $100/kg (Carman, 2024)
        
        Even though Forged Gras caters to luxury restaurants, profit margins are still low and the business is hard to sustain (Reynolds, 2024)
        
        Policy:
        
        Laws requiring lab-grown meats to level their products as "meatless" or "imitations" (Carman, 2024)
        
        Negatively impacts marketing
        
        Success: Forged Gras managed to imitate the texture of foie gras reasonably, while reducing the liver taste (Carman, 2024)
      - Faux Gras: Plant-based foie gras
        
        Fuah!
        
        Vegetable-based foie gras created by Spanish company, Hello Plant (Foie Gras - plant based, 2024)
        
        Sold out across Spain (Kassam, 2023)
        
        Making plant-based foie gras at home (Faux Gras, 2023; Sunderani, 2025)
      - alternative cultivation methods
        
        Ethical feeding: Allow ducks to eat as much food as they want, rather than through force-feeding (Youatt, 2012)
        
        But has faced setback from French organisations that foie gras by law requires force feeding (DeSoucey, 2016)
        
        Duck and goose livers produced this way are smaller and less consistent than through gavage (DeSoucey, 2016)
        
        Lipase treatment to expand the liver to produce fatty content instead of force-feeding (Baechle et al., 2025)
        
        Mouthfeel, taste and flavour of lipase-treated foie gras still lags behind commonly accepted thresholds for force-fed foie gras
    - - Birds are unable to regulate their temperatures without bathing or swimming (Skippon, 2013)
      - Unable to stand erect, turn around, or flap their wings (Skippon, 2013)
    - - Lead to posture and gait abnormalities, steatosis, oesophagitis (Rochlitz & Broom, 2017)
        
        Ducks that are force-fed have on average, 1300-5800% higher mortality rate (Four Paws, n.d.; Voslářová et al., 2007)
      - Pain, discomfort and injuries to the ducks and geese (Rochlitz & Broom, 2017)
    - - Some family-run farms take measures to ensure the ducks’ welfare (Heath & Meneley, 2010)
        
        Making sure that the duck is calm and comfortable
        
        Massaging the duck during gavaging to smoothen the feeding process
        
        Ensuring that gavaging is done quickly
        
        Building a relationship with the ducks
  - - - The overfeeding and longer rearing times of ducks are the main causes of environmental impact (Brachet et al., 2015)
        
        require larger amount of corn/maize for feed production
    - - Use of sorghum instead of maize as more environmentally-friendly (Arroyo et al., 2013)
        
        Reduce potential environmental impacts of the whole foie gras production process
- - - - Feature:
        
        Weight from 1-3 pounds
        
        Firm to touch
        
        Exceptionally smooth in texture
        
        Light colour, almost white
        
        No blemish (Blood spots)
        
        Shiny
      - Cost around $87.70 per lbs
      - Smells sweet and fresh
    - - Mousse de Foie Gras (Taste Atlas, n.d.)
        
        Texture: Smooth, light, and spreadable
        
        Ingredients: Foie gras (usually Grade B or C), butter, béchamel sauce, or crème fraîche
        
        Usage: Spread on toast or bread, appetizer or snack
        
        Flavor: Milder due to added ingredients
        
        Common Format: Jar or small tin
      - Pâté de Foie Gras (Eatwell101, n.d.)
        
        Texture: Coarse or smooth, depending on the mix
        
        Ingredients: Foie gras mixed with other meats (pork, veal, duck)
        
        Usage: Spreadable, used as an appetizer or sandwich filling
        
        Flavor: Rich, savory, with a blend of meats
      - Terrine of Foie Gras / Foie Gras Entier / Whole Foie Gras
        (Centre of the plate, 2016)
        
        Texture: Firm, sliceable
        
        Terrine: Entire lobes or pieces of foie gras pressed into a mold
        
        Foie Gras Entier: Whole liver lobe(s) cooked with minimal seasoning
        
        Whole Foie Gras: Typically just one liver lobe, not mixed
        
        Usage: Sliced and served cold, often with fruit preserves or bread
        
        Flavor: Pure, intense foie gras flavor
        
        Grade Used: Grade A or B
      - Bloc de Foie Gras ((Mas Parés, n.d.)
        
        Texture: Smooth, uniform
        
        Ingredients: Reconstructed pieces of foie gras, emulsified into a uniform block
        
        Usage: Slice and serve, often chilled
        
        Format: Canned or jarred
        
        With Pieces (avec morceaux): Contains visible chunks of liver
      - Foie Gras Torchon ((López-Alt, 2022)
        
        Texture: Silky, firm
        
        Preparation: Liver is wrapped in a cloth (torchon), poached or cured
        
        Usage: Sliced and served cold, high-end presentation
        
        Flavor: Pure, elegant, subtly seasoned
    - - Physical Appearance:
        
        Weight around 0.5 - 1.5 lbs
        
        Softer in texture
        
        Flatter and more compact
        
        Darker colour
        
        Have more prominent blood and vein spots than grade A
      - Cost $45 per lbs
    - - Physical Appearance:
        
        Pale in color
        
        Coarser in texture
      - Raw Grade C foie gras is usually not for sale, it's made into sauces and flavouring agents. Rare to find.