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The Portland City Council on Thursday passed an ordinance banning the sale of force-fed foie gras in the city. The policy passed 7–5, with Councilor Steve Novick siding with the six members of the council’s progressive caucus. Cheers erupted from a sea of audience members in green Pro-Animal Oregon shirts at the announcement of the voting tally.
“I just cannot say that I feel like it’s okay to force-feed an animal to produce an expensive delicacy,” Novick said on Thursday. “And I know that reasonable people can disagree. It’s an emotional issue.” He noted that New York City, the “epicenter of fine dining in America,” and Pittsburgh, “not known as a wacky liberal city,” had also passed foie gras bans. Novick made similar points when he told WW on Monday that he would vote in favor of the ordinance.
The policy has sparked two fights. One pits the animal rights group Pro-Animal Oregon versus the French restaurant Le Pigeon (and its sibling restaurant Canard), which is famous for its foie gras concoctions. Second, is a spat between the council’s progressive caucus—who unanimously voted in favor of the ban—and moderates who say the whole thing is a waste of time.
Pro-Animal Oregon says force-fed foie gras inherently involves animal cruelty, and banning the product is a concrete way to make change. Restaurateurs, including Le Pigeon’s co-owners Gabriel Rucker and Andrew Fortgang, say the policy will harm restaurants who help bolster the city’s feeble economy.
Councilor Dan Ryan echoed that reason on Thursday before voting no. “This ban will further tarnish our economic development reputation at a time we can least afford it,” Ryan said.
“I don’t think this tarnishes our economic capabilities at all,” Councilor Mitch Green, the ordinance’s main sponsor, said a few minutes later.
The ordinance prohibits restaurants, retailers and food services in the city from selling or otherwise providing force-fed foie gras or dishes that use it as an ingredient. It does not limit private possession or consumption of force-fed foie gras, nor the sale of foie gras that has been produced without force feeding. Anyone selling the dish will have to provide documentary evidence that it has not been force-fed. It will take effect in 180 days.
Foie gras is an exceedingly small fraction of both the national farming industry and the Portland restaurant scene. Two farms in upstate New York produce virtually all of the foie gras in the country; only one other farm, in Minnesota, produces commercial foie gras.
Only seven restaurants and one retailer were selling foie gras in Portland as of late April, according to Pro-Animal Oregon. A total of 16 restaurants and two retailers have offered it during the last year.
Opponents of the policy say it’s performative because foie gras is so rare and other parts of the food industry—such as factory-farmed chicken—involve much more animal cruelty. Supporters say that’s no reason not to prevent the harm force-fed foie gras brings to ducks and geese, and that the small number of foie gras purveyors in Portland mean the ban won’t be burdensome on the public.
“Not every policy that comes before council needs to be a grand referendum on the future of this city,” Councilor Candace Avalos said on Thursday before voting yes on the ban.
In a Bluesky post on Wednesday, Councilor Angelita Morillo argued that press coverage had focused too heavily on the foie gras ordinance instead of more substantive work at the council. “We’ve passed tons of other high priority policies while foie gras ban went through Council,” Morillo wrote. “And I’m sorry but 75 people came to testify for the ban, it’s already been done in other cities, this is just not a big deal.”
The ordinance marks the culmination of decades of on-and-off protests, and attempted bans, against foie gras in the city. In 2005, after members of the group In Defense of Animals protested outside the Portland restaurant Hurley’s, the Oregon Senate passed a bill to ban foie gras. That bill died in the House. In 2008, protests sprung up again, this time from the Portland Animal Defense League and targeting restaurants like Bluehour, Higgins and Le Pigeon.
And in 2021, then Portland Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Mingus Mapps signaled that they would support such a ban. That also went nowhere. Pro-Animal Oregon took up the fight when it was founded in 2024.
