"Foie gras production should be judged not by the worst farms, but by the best, because those are the ones that I'm going to choose to buy my foie from if at all."<p>This is an interesting assumption which is not novel to foie gras advocates. For instance, if I buy my wife a diamond ring from a responsible diamond trader, I'm still supporting demand for an industry that is seeped in violence and slavery, and for an item that is unabashedly luxurious and unnecessary (my apologies, diamond lovers of HN).<p>I can see how this line of thinking becomes a slipper slope, e.g., are we all implicit supporting sweat shops when we buy clothes made in America? I think the answer to that is no, and the answer of culpability in general depends on a number of factors ranging from the necessity of the item to the severity of the atrocities occurring in an industry.<p>In that respect, I don't think an industry should be judged by its outliers, but by its median. The median foie gras industry is not La Belle Farms.