You can stuff your ban: US chefs fight to keep foie gras on the menu

Some of California's top chefs are attempting to overturn a ban on the production and sale of foie gras, two months before it is due to come into effect.

In 2004, the California legislature gave producers seven years to find a humane way to create the duck-liver delicacy without forcing food down the birds' throats. But with the law set to take effect on 1 July, 100 chefs have signed a petition to keep the sale of foie gras legal and establish new regulations for raising the birds.

"I gave them seven years... and now they're all going, 'Oh my God, I just don't know how we're going to survive,'" said John Burton, the ban's original sponsor and now the state Democratic Party chairman.

Mr Burton initially agreed to delay the law because the state's sole producer had asked for time to find a more humane way to engorge the birds' livers.