Washington, DC: Voters Approve Foie Gras Ban in Initiative 86

Washington, DC voters approved a ban on foie gras on Tuesday, November 3. Initiative 86, called the Prohibiting the Force-Feeding of Birds Act of 2026, received 73 percent of the vote in unofficial election night results from the DC Board of Elections, with 97,432 votes in favor. The measure drew more than 70 percent support in each of the District's eight wards, according to the campaign that placed it on the ballot.

Foie gras is a fatty liver produced by force-feeding ducks and geese through a tube, a practice called gavage. Initiative 86 bans that force-feeding in the District and bans the sale, import and distribution of products made through the practice. No foie gras farms operate in DC, so the ban falls almost entirely on restaurants and retailers that sell the dish.

What changes for restaurants

The ban takes effect on July 1, 2027. Retailers and restaurants that serve foie gras after that date face fines of $1,000 to $5,000 per violation, and repeat violations can put a business license at risk, Washingtonian reported. The law covers commercial sales only. People can still keep and eat foie gras for personal use.

DC's chief financial officer estimated that the ban would cost $314,000 to enforce over four years. The money would pay for business education and an inspector at the Department of Energy and Environment, the agency that also enforces the city's bans on foam containers and plastic straws. Enforcement is expected to run on complaints rather than kitchen inspections, and the council still has to fund the work in a future budget.

A legal fight is already taking shape

Hudson Valley Foie Gras, a New York producer, told Axios it is preparing a legal fight in DC. "There are no ducks that are being fed for foie gras in DC," the company's vice president, Marcus Henley, told Axios. Bart Hutchins, the chef at Butterworth's, has become the public face of the local opposition. He offered a $150 four-course foie gras menu in the week before the vote, with the proceeds set aside for a legal fight, and he told Washingtonian he is exploring his legal options.

New York City shows how long that fight can run. Its council banned foie gras sales in 2019, and seven years later the law is still tied up in court. Pro-Animal DC, the group behind Initiative 86, says it is not worried about a producer's legal threat and expects councilmembers to fund a measure that passed by such a wide margin.

How the measure reached the ballot

Pro-Animal DC and its parent group, Pro-Animal Future, put Initiative 86 on the ballot with 198 circulators who collected 46,020 signatures. The Board of Elections verified 31,726 of them, above the 28,728 required. The group spent about $400,000 on the DC campaign, Reason reported. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would vote against the measure on principle, according to Reason.

"Three cities in one year, from Portland to the nation's capital to Denver. People in each of them decided that force-feeding a bird doesn't belong in their city," said Eva Hamer, executive director of Pro-Animal Future. Denver voters approved a matching ban, Initiated Ordinance 311, with 66.55 percent of the vote on the same night. Foie gras sales are already banned in California, New York City, Pittsburgh and Portland, Oregon. The campaigns say these are the first foie gras bans in the United States approved directly by voters.