Foie gras
In 2012, France produced around 19,000 tonnes of foie gras representing 75% of the world's production in that year. This required the force-feeding of around 38 million ducks and geese. World production in 2015 is estimated as 27,000 tonnes.
Foie gras
After the fall of the Roman empire, goose liver temporarily vanished from European cuisine. Some claim that Gallic farmers preserved the foie gras tradition until the rest of Europe rediscovered it centuries later, but the medieval French peasant's food animals were mainly pig and sheep. Others claim that the tradition was preserved by the Jews, who learned the method of enlarging a goose's liver during the Roman colonisation of Judea or earlier from Egyptians. The Jews carried this culinary knowledge as they migrated farther north and west to Europe.