After being contacted by a local campaigner, poet Dr. Benjamin Zephaniah has made a statement adding his voice to campaigners’ calls for the Cambridge restaurant, Midsummer House, to go Foie Gras free.

According to Dr Benjamin Zephaniah “Foie Gras is cruel and inhumane. Forget the fancy name; put simply it is the enlarged liver of a duck or goose, and it should have no place in a civilised society. The process used to produce this so-called ‘delicacy’ commonly involves a barbaric force-feeding process that causes the animals liver to swell painfully. I call on Midsummer House to stop selling this product immediately”

Benjamin Zephaniah is a radical poet with a strong mainstream audience. Dr. Zephaniah was offered an OBE (officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2003 but refused to waver in his principles and turned it down publicly in an article for the Guardian newspaper. In the article he explains how the word ‘empire’ reminds him of slavery. However Dr. Zephaniah’s circle of compassion extends beyond humans and encompasses the animal kingdom as well.

The campaigner contacted Zephaniah as part of an on going campaign to make Cambridge Foie Gras free, calling on Midsummer House to drop the controversial dish from their menu. According to a local campaigner “There has been regular demonstrations outside the business and it is really good to have a statement from someone held in high regard by many.” “Dr. Zephaniah is absolutely right, Foie Gras should play no part in a civilised society. The process is considered so unethical that it is illegal in the UK and therefore Foie Gras is imported, all the major supermarkets and many other businesses will not sell the product and many birds die even before getting to slaughter.”