Author Sarah Rolph ’22/’26 is a Culinary Science major.
“It is one of the unique CIA experiences that I will remember, and it will impact my perspective throughout my career.”
One of my favorite parts of being a student at CIA is how its classes feature hands-on learning as much as possible. In the kitchen, the hands on part is obvious but in our academic classes these opportunities come in different forms. Recently, in my Food Policy course we discussed animal welfare—more specifically the regulation of foie gras—and got the unique and rare opportunity to tour one of the two foie gras farms in the country, both of which are right here in the Hudson Valley near CIA’s New York campus.
So, what is foie gras? Every fall when preparing to migrate for the winter duck and geese gorge themselves on grass and feed to stock up for the long flight south. Way back in ancient Egypt they found that these birds had enlarged livers that were fatty with a delicious rich flavor and challenged their cooks and farmers to supply this delicacy year-round. This led to the invention of the gavage process, where geese and ducks are forced to be fed for weeks to enlarge their liver to up to ten times its normal size before being harvested. Foie gras is the fattened liver.
The trip started with a quick hour and a half drive from campus to their packing facility where we got a tour from their head chefs. They showed us different processing rooms where they made foie gras torchons as well as giant kettles of rendered duck tallow and bone broth. As a Culinary Science student, I was most excited to see the packing machinery where they filled pouches of bone broth that were then pasteurized and jars with hot tallow which were then x-rayed to be sure there were no contaminants. And my personal favorite, spray bottles of rendered wagyu beef tallow that used compressed air as the propellant instead of additives.
After enjoying a nice spread of Hudson Valley Farms’ products (my favorite was the foie gras duck sausage) a quick ten-minute drive down the road got us to the farm where the birds live. The first stop was the barn housing the ducklings! We got to hold the cuties and hear about their life cycle in the wild along with what’s unique about the specific breed that they grow. The second barn houses 8-week-old ducks where we learned about their diets, how they mimic the protein rich grasses they’d eat in the spring as ducklings, changing to a more carb and fat heavy diet to store energy for their journey.
Next up was seeing the processing facility, where there were some of the most precise and quick butchery I’d ever seen happening. We got a tour from the farm’s Vice President, Marcus Henley, who was able to explain through firsthand accounts the legal battles and regulations we had been discussing in class. Since the farm is the center of the fight to keep foie gras legal in the state, they have been making constant updates to their facilities in efforts to be as humane as possible, not only with the ducks but also with their meat chickens. I won’t get into too much detail, but what I will share is that as culinary professionals we have handled and will handle an immeasurable amount of meat throughout our careers. And it is vital that we understand the loss of life that comes as the cost for that protein.
I am grateful to Hudson Valley Farms and Professor Flynn who organized the trip. It is one of the unique CIA experiences that I will remember, and it will impact my perspective throughout my career. This experience was one that I think everyone who consumes meat should have—to truly understand the cost of putting meat on the table—and decide for yourself if that’s worth it.
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