As always, your posts stand out like a shiny penny on the ground.
I think you are onto something here. He wants to be LOVED and respected by his chef peers--not just foodie bloggers and TV gazers. By supporting foie gras production, he comes off as supporting chefs' rights/interests. And he
so badly wants to fit into that world, be a member in that
club. As you know, he was a struggling chef for 25 years in NYC, working at a mediocre bistro, suffering through heroin addiction, until he got his big break with the publication of
Kitchen Confidential. His career in the TV world took off from there. And he finally got the attention that he desired. Now he is beloved by many, including the top chefs in the world. But he
has seemingly taken on some honorary spokesperson role for the chef causes out there, whether it be foie gras production, eating local, or supporting small farms, etc.
I do wonder at the end of the day, does he really believe a bite of duck liver--the pleasure derived from it--trumps the pain and suffering these ducks must endure to produce it? It is hard to really believe such an educated person can, I agree.
This is why I believe the wearing of fur is abominable. Vanity and greed are not sound reasons to justify the suffering of animals raised and killed in the fur industry. Leather, as a byproduct of food production, is different from this, imo.
I agree that Morrissey SHOULD be vegan. That he is NOT, is a contradiction that is very hard to accept. It weakens his argument and puts a crack in the foundation of his position. If you are gonna do something right, go the extra mile. Go 100 %. The milk/cheese industry is
at least as barbaric and cruel as the meat industry. He seems to conveniently gloss over this fact. Much in the same way that Bourdain glosses over the cruelty of foie gras production. They both want to conveniently rationalize their choices.
Morrissey obviously feels that the pleasure he derives from eating yogurt and cheese trumps the pain of dairy cows who suffer from non-stop pregnancies, infected, painfully swollen pus filled udders, and years of confinement while being hooked up to milking machines so that their milk can be sold to humans rather than be given to their offspring, who are taken from them after birth to be raised for veal--if male--or to become dairy cows like themselves, if female (longest sentence I have written on Solo, btw).