Fat liver

"Animal-rights advocates have made a big deal about the way the ducks are force-fed to produce the enormously swollen livers from which the foie gras is made." And now Bob Herbert of the New York Times looks "at the plight of the underpaid, overworked and often gruesomely exploited farmworkers who feed and otherwise care for the ducks."

At issue is whether New York will award certain rights to farmworkers, "including the right to at least one day of rest per week and . . . the right to bargain collectively."