Geese in the Perigord

This is a fois gras producing farm that we passed one day as we drove around the countryside in the Perigord, and while my husband popped in the store across the street, I spent about twenty minutes watching the geese. Fois gras is produced by force feeding the geese grain for about six months, which enlarges their livers to the point where they tilt forward when they walk, their livers are so weighty, and then they become their component parts of goose and liver for the consumer.

I had read about this before, and wondered what this kind of life would look like. Factory farmed chickens have a shorter life span from hatching to the table, and are often penned up the whole of their lives. Seeing these geese, who were chortling and mixing with each other outside on a pleasant fall day seemed to be living a reasonable life for an animal produced to be food, even if they were a bit off kilter as they waddled about.