Wanted: Geese Who'll Gorge Themselves

In the quest for kinder, gentler fois gras, some producers claim to have succeeded in getting the birds to gorge naturally, fattening up their livers without  force-feeding them. A Spanish company says its prize-winning pate was produced by letting the birds roam freely and butchering them right before they would natually migrate.

Others are experimenting with soft rather than steel tubes to reduce discomfort to the geese, and squeamishness on the part of consumers. The delicacy has been banned in California and Chicago; California's bill includes a built-in seven-year grace period to develop more humane ways of making it. (More foie gras stories.)