Foie Gras at the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games are an important moment to stand up for animal welfare in the eyes of the global public and to demonstrate that foie gras has no place on the menu.
At this year's Olympic Games, taking place between 26 July and 11 August in Paris, 13 million meals will be served.
According to the International Olympic Committee, 60% of these will be plant-based.
While this represents a positive commitment to a more sustainable and healthier diet, it is a glaring contradiction that VIP guests at the Games will also be offered a cruel and controversial product: foie gras.
Animal welfare advocates have launched a petition calling on the Committee to reconsider this decision, while the issue itself serves as a stark reminder of why a ban on force-feeding for foie gras production at EU level remains necessary.
The suffering behind foie gras production
The production of foie gras is brutal. Geese and ducks are force-fed large quantities of food up to three times a day for 12 to 16 days via a funnel before being slaughtered. In most cases, these birds are forced to live under appalling conditions throughout this process: confined in small cages with a movable grid that compresses them during force-feeding to make their necks easier to grasp.
22 member states have already recognised the barbarity of this practice and banned the production of foie gras, with the exception of a few countries such as France, Hungary and Spain. In the countries where foie gras production is still permitted, the cruel treatment of geese and ducks in this sector has been well documented, including by the French NGO L214 and our Belgian member GAIA, who filed a complaint against the Walloon Region at the end of 2023 for its continued disregard of this practice.
It is of crucial importance that the European Commission intervenes to align all 27 member states on this issue and to prohibit force-feeding for foie gras in legislation, so that this cruel practice cannot be carried out anywhere in the EU. This is a step that the European Parliament has already called for by 2021. It is important that this change comes into force as soon as possible.
The message must be clear: foie gras must not be offered to guests at this year's Olympic Games. Having claimed that the International Olympic Committee wants to “present French foods that are sourced, produced and consumed responsibly,” it would be a hypocritical move to offer a product so closely associated with unnecessary cruelty and suffering.
Foie gras must not be served at this year's Olympic Games.
