Since the article was short on answers, here's one possible answer as to "why we don't eat swans":
Their numbers are too small to get into volume "manufacturing" (CAFO's).
15,000 swans. That's cute.
We harvest 10,000 kiloTonnes of cattle per year in the USA alone. That means, our CAFO'S produce about 2 million pounds of beef for every 1 swan we could harvest.
Our food system loves repeatable processes & volume efficiencies that wild game can't provide.
Note: I may be nearly vegetarian, & eat only local organic meat rarely. But, the facts of CAFO's dominate the market.
If they were really that good they would raise them like turkeys.
My guess is that royalty ate them initially largely because they looked regal. The fact that they redressed them with the feathers before serving lends further credence to this idea.
Geese are pretty awful to eat.. particularly wild geese from what my brother in law says. Swans are probably even worse.
Their numbers are too small to get into volume "manufacturing" (CAFO's).
15,000 swans. That's cute.
We harvest 10,000 kiloTonnes of cattle per year in the USA alone. That means, our CAFO'S produce about 2 million pounds of beef for every 1 swan we could harvest.
Our food system loves repeatable processes & volume efficiencies that wild game can't provide.
Note: I may be nearly vegetarian, & eat only local organic meat rarely. But, the facts of CAFO's dominate the market.