Deliciously decadent or cruel and unhealthy? While the debate over foie gras rages around the world a handful of American farms are busily force-feeding ducks to satisfy growing appetites for the luxury liver pate.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras and neighbouring farm La Belle in New York state and California’s Sonoma Foie Gras are the countries’ only three producers of the controversial gastronomic treat, known universally by its French name.

Together they produce 300 tons a year, five times more than output 30 years ago, although, even including 130 tons from Canada, it is a pittance compared to the 19,000 ton annual French avalanche of foie gras.

It’s a common misconception that the US bars sales of foie gras. However, imports of the fresh version are not allowed and other imported tinned pates are subjected to stringent sterilisation procedures that gourmets find takes away the best of the taste.

Bans have also been erected against the fatty, festive food, notably for two years in Chicago until 2008, and in California until 2012. Hawaii is considering such a measure and elsewhere around the globe the delicacy is often restricted, such as production bans in Britain and Italy.

France is the only real bastion of the dish, which begins with le gavage, when a metal tube is forced down the throats of ducks and geese so that they can be force fed until their livers expand up to 10 times the normal size and become ready to be turned into the lucrative pate.

Paul Schapiro, director of the anti-factory farming campaign at the Humane Society of the US, says the practice is not just cruel but disgusting.

“The scientific evidence is clear that force-feeding ducks and geese is detrimental to their welfare,” he said.

“These animals are basically induced with a state of disease, known as hepatic lipindosis in their livers and for what? For a mere table treat?

“I mean most people wouldn’t want to eat any part of a diseased animal, yet with the case of foie gras, people are eating the diseased organ itself.”

But Ariane Daguin, a pioneer of foie gras distribution in the US, says the fuss is misguided.

“Gavage of geese and ducks dates back 5,000 years. The Egyptians and Tutankhamen did it,” she said. “Wild ducks naturally accumulate calories in their liver before they head off on migration.”