The North Face, a fairly hip clothing brand, with annual sales of $1.1bn, that likes to call itself the Nike of the outdoors, was the subject of a Sunday Times exposé this week.
It seems North Face has been stuffing its jackets with down from geese, force-fed on Hungarian farms to produce foie gras which retails at around €350 per 300g.
Other than at Trinners, Studenty realises foie gras might not feature in the diet of many students so we’ll explain.
Migratory birds such as ducks and geese are adapted for weight gain, particularly in the liver, to aid annual migration. Funnels and tubes are used to pneumatically force-feed geese with boiled corn mash up to four times daily, over about three weeks. This results in a rapid increase in size of the bird’s liver through fat retention, way beyond its natural size. The liver is then removed and processed into paté.
Hungary is the second biggest producer of foie gras after France. A number of EU countries as well as Turkey and Israel have banned foie gras production because of the force-feeding process.
The North Face has previously stated on its point of sale material that ‘force-feeding for foie gras has been banned in the supply chain of the North Face down material for many years’. The North Face has over 250 retailers in Britain and Ireland and the company makes ‘sustainability and ethical sourcing’ central to its brand.
In response to the Sunday Times exposé, North Face has said that its trying to find alternative sources of cruelty free materials. After it was caught out.
Would animal cruelty in the supply chain make you switch labels?
Image: © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons
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