The Hungarian Foie Gras Boycott: Struggles for Moral Sovereignty in Postsocialist Europe

In 2008 an Austrian animal rights organization announced a boycott of Hungarian foie gras, arguing that force-feeding geese and ducks constitutes animal cruelty. The case received a lot of media attention and quickly evolved into a bitter conflict. The article scrutinizes the case as an example of postsocialist conflicts around ethics and morality and the concept of common good. The incident demonstrates not only unexpected obstacles for Hungary to be accepted as civilizationally European but also for Hungarian farmers' ability to act as morally sovereign self-regulating subjects in a neoliberal world.