The lifting of the California ban against selling foie gras (the hyperfattened liver of geese or ducks, brought about by overfeeding the live animals) is pretty much a nonissue, except to point out that as a nation we have little perspective on animal welfare. To single out the tiniest fraction of meat production and label it “cruel” is to miss the big picture, and the big picture is this: Almost all meat production in the United States is cruel.

The sale and production of foie gras was prohibited in California in 2012. Though the ban was widely ignored — foie gras was served for free in many restaurants and sold illegally in others — it’s now legal to serve it. (Production remains banned.)

But so what? Foie gras is among the most overrated of luxury ingredients, ranking right up there with caviar and truffles. Done right, all three are delicious, but we can call them rich people’s food, and as such they’re not that important except to chefs who want to impress rich people or rich people who want to be impressed.

Of the three, from the point of view of pleasure, foie gras is the least important (many organ meats are more enjoyable), although it’s the easiest to produce and the least expensive. The best truffles are white, mostly Italian, difficult to find and stunningly pricey — upward of $1,000 a pound. The best caviar (beluga) comes from Iran, Russia and a couple of other countries with shores on the Caspian Sea; not only are prices comparable to truffles, fishing these endangered sturgeon is strictly regulated.