School Lunch Forum Calls for Reasonable Price Increase and Stronger Campus Screening Capacity
The Taichung Chapter held the "Taichung City School Lunch Ingredient Safety Forum" on May 7, inviting elementary and middle school lunch personnel to discuss current issues with schools' screening and testing of ingredients, and the feasibility of using non-genetically modified soybean products. At the meeting, a consensus was reached on reasonably raising lunch prices and improving ingredient safety. Schools hope that relevant units can help establish a standard contract template, as well as source screening of ingredients and assistance with schools' ingredient testing work.
On the feasibility of "switching soybean products to non-genetically modified soybeans," among 36 feedback forms collected, 17 schools said they would consider trying to make "removing GM beans from campuses" a future direction, and 10 schools had already implemented it through contract specifications and verbal commitments. Another 8 schools said they would not consider it due to price and other factors. However, it is worth mentioning that nearly 90% of teachers said this event gave them a further understanding of ingredient safety and the health risks of GM beans and their products.
Lin Xinrong, a representative of the Greater Taichung Municipal Supervision Alliance, responded in his capacity as a pediatrician to on-site teachers' concerns about whether GM foods pose health risks. He pointed out that rigorous medical research should use one generation, 30 years, as the research period. However, GM foods only emerged after the 1990s, making this arguably the largest-scale human experiment. In addition, pediatric medicine at the current stage has already found signs of precocious puberty caused by environmental exposure and environmental hormones, and animal experiments spanning three generations have also confirmed the physical harm caused by GM foods. All of this shows that caution regarding GM foods is necessary.
[For the Environment, For Health: Campus Food Safety Needs More Concern from Parents and Teachers]
Zhang Mingchun, who also serves as a member of the "Taichung City School Lunch Health Promotion Committee," said that from the remarks of participants, it was found that schools' reception of food safety-related information is quite fragmented and piecemeal. The Education Bureau and Health Bureau have long had problems with inefficiency in conveying test results and related information. The opinions collected at the forum will be reported to relevant city government units. The Taichung Chapter will later hold a "School Lunch Ingredient Safety Forum" for parents, hoping to discuss mechanisms for parents to care about and participate in school lunches, and encourage parents to join each school's lunch committee. Through parent kitchen supervision, another line of defense will be established for children's food safety at school, so that children can eat safely at school together, and by emphasizing safe eating, the impact of pesticides, genetic modification, and other factors on health and the environment can be reduced. (Text/Xu Xinxin, Lin Fangru)
[Reference Articles:]
1. Post-meeting press release: "School Lunch Prices Frozen, Food Safety for Teachers and Students Hard to Guarantee: Homemaker's Union Holds Forum with Elementary and Middle Schools, Calls for Reasonable Price Increase to Improve Campus Food Safety"
2. A Comprehensive View of School Lunch Problems in Taichung City
3. School Lunch Cooking Oil Worrying: Should Be Quickly Investigated, Announced, and Replaced to Protect Students' Basic Human Right to Healthy Eating
4. Pesticide Residue in School Lunches More Widespread Than at Ding Wang
5. The Controversy and Truth of Genetically Modified Technology
6. Refusing Genetically Modified Crops in School Lunches: Kaohsiung Takes the First Step
7. The GM Crisis in School Lunches