Protesters yesterday took to the streets in Taipei in support of the international campaign March Against Monsanto, calling on the government to maintain strict regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMO) in foods.
GMO foods will be a critical issue in negotiations on agricultural trade between Taiwan and the US to be held in September, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator said.
The first, US-based, March Against Monsanto in 2013 garnered support from more than 2 million protesters worldwide who protested against the US biotechnological multinational, which produces genetically modified plant species and herbicides.
Tami Canal, the initiator of the movement, has been campaigning to promote organic food production and for the labeling of products containing GMO ingredients.
The Homemakers United Foundation joined the movement yesterday to lead the march, which ended at the Water Garden Organic Farmers’ Market.
“GM foods and 80 percent of the herbicides [used by local farmers] pose health risks,” said Warren Kuo (郭華仁), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Agronomy, adding that Monsanto’s and the US government’s support of GMO foods was scientifically untenable.
Since 2008, Kuo has been working with the foundation, the Green Formosa Front and a few lawmakers to call for regulation of GMO foods.
Their efforts were rewarded in 2015, when the government amended the School Health Act (學校衛生法) to keep genetically modified and heavily processed foods from reaching educational institutions.
Kuo said the government must not bow to pressure from the US, who he said has called for abolishing the ban on GMO foods in schools under the pretext that it constitutes a barrier to trade.
“As long as the US can offer quality soy beans at a reasonable price, we are willing to purchase them. There is no such thing as a trade barrier,” he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said the government would likely be pressured on the issue of GMO foods and meat products containing ractopamine during the negotiations in September, adding that people should work together to let the US know Taiwanese do not want these things, and that she would raise the issues again in the Legislative Yuan on May 31.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS