Legislators and environmentalists criticized the Council of Agriculture yesterday for failing to regulate genetically modified (GM) papaya seedlings in lab fields after the Cabinet's Department of Health discovered two GM papayas growing in Taichung County.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Eugene Jao (
According to Jao, the agriculture council commenced research in 1998 into the development of papayas resistant to the devastating papaya ring spot virus.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
One of the laboratories working on this is in Wufeng Township, Taichung County. The health department inspectors also discovered GM papayas growing in Wufeng in 2001.
"Rather than benefiting from the scientific research, we have become victims," Jao said at a press conference yesterday.
Huang Shan-ney (
Eric Liou (
"The government should immediately launch a safety assessment regarding GM papayas," Liou said.
In Europe or North America, it takes at least 10 years to complete a GM food safety assessment to safeguard consumers' health, Liou said.
"If we don't know anything about GM papayas, the product should not be available on the market," Liou said.
Pointing to a strain of GM papayas in Hawaii as an example of how the problem should be handled, Liou said the product was strongly promoted when it went to market five years ago, but last year it was scientifically associated with an allergen.
Liou said papaya cultivation is one of Taiwan's most important agricultural industries.
He said that it was not right that Taiwanese papaya farmers should to be hurt by the government's carelessness in regulating food products.
According to the health department, only two imported GM products are available on the Taiwanese market -- soya beans and corn. Another 11 GM food products and materials are under evaluation.
Health officials said the compulsory labeling of GM crops and products processed from GM foodstuffs would be implemented next year.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), a neighboring apartment building tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the site with water to stabilize the groundwater level and then added dirt and cement to
RSS