In reply to UKC Gear:
A couple of points. Polish down is about ethical as it gets at the moment. Live plucking is banned in Poland (although realistically, this isn't very easy and I don't know why anyone would do it) - to the best of my knowledge, it is the only country to do so. Forced feeding is also banned in Poland - I don't know however if there are other countries that do so.
The concern in Poland however concerns what they call the "harvesting" of down. This is the recovery of down when the goose is moulting (which it does every 6 weeks - contrary to what an early poster said although it may be a matter of the breed of their own geese) - and does require handling of the bird. However, this is only a light brushing of the chest area, and is only done outside of the nesting season (mother geese with young being quite aggressive!)
The Polish Institute for ? (I can't remember the exact name) is trying to market Polish down as truly ethically farmed - their aim is to sell it as a branded product. They aim to have every goose to be registered, whether if it is used for breeding or the meat industry, and I think they are quite a long way down this track. There are undoubtedly small holdings outside of this but they are a small minority and probably not part of the commercial supply chain anyway.
Most brands buy their down from consolidators who source down from a number of countries - predominantly Hungary, Ukraine and Siberia, as well as Poland - and process it (ie clean it) before selling it on.