The average Taiwanese consumes about 322 eggs every year, but pricing competition has prevented local farmers from embracing animal-friendly egg production methods, a Council of Agriculture official said yesterday.
Department of Animal Industry Deputy Director Wang Chung-shu (王忠恕) made the remark in response to animal rights groups’ calls for cage-free eggs.
With the support of animal rights groups, hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan yesterday announced that it would only sell cage-free eggs under its brand name by 2025 and would push its suppliers to achieve the same goal.
By the end of this year, its nationwide stores are to set up special zones to promote cage-free eggs, it said.
Later yesterday, the company and a group of animal rights advocates and egg farmers attended a meeting held by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to address egg production.
Open Wing Alliance vice president Aaron Ross displayed pictures taken at Taiwanese egg farms, showing chickens crowded in battery cages, and called on the farmers to join the global trend of cage-free egg farming.
The council has no timetable to ban battery cages, as more communication with egg farmers is needed, Wang said.
People are used to buying eggs at low prices, which keeps poultry farmers from adopting cage-free farming that might raise egg prices, Wang said, but added that the council would continue promoting animal-friendly egg production methods.
Animal-friendly methods refer to hens raised in enriched cages or barns, or ranging free, according to the Definition and Guideline of Friendly Eggs Production System (雞蛋友善生產系統定義與指南) released by the council in 2014.
Most egg farmers at the meeting said they do not object to rearing free-range chickens, but added that they are deterred by potentially higher costs and limited market access.
The cost of free-range poultry farming is three times that of caged farming, a Pingtung County chicken farmer surnamed Tu (涂) said, adding that he would consider free-range farming if retailers accept costlier eggs.
Carrefour cares more about prices than farmers, but with public awareness about food security rising, it decided to sell healthier and safe products, Carrefour Taiwan Foundation chief executive Marilyn Su (蘇小真) said.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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