The Food and Drug Administration has added a glyphosate residue tolerance level, and I firmly oppose it
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced a draft amendment to the "Standards for Pesticide Residue Tolerances," adding glyphosate residue tolerance levels for ten miscellaneous grain crops including oats, buckwheat and barley, with the proposed change going from "not detectable" to 10ppm, and the reference documents for this regulatory amendment actually came from Monsanto. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which ought to safeguard the public's food safety, appears to value corporate business interests even more than the public's health and well-being.
The Taiwan GMO-Free Promotion Alliance invites all partners who care about food, agriculture and the environment to join us in demanding that the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Food and Drug Administration withdraw this draft amendment adding glyphosate residue standards!
[What you can do]
- Send an email - Ministry of Health and Welfare Food and Drug Administration: [email protected]
- Leave a comment - Public Policy Participation Platform: https://reurl.cc/M9YGL
[You are welcome to freely use the objection statement we provide]
Oppose the relaxation of glyphosate residue tolerance levels
I firmly oppose the addition of glyphosate residue tolerance levels for barley, millet, durum wheat, rapeseed, sorghum, triticale, rye, proso millet, oats and buckwheat, raising them from the original "not detectable" to 10ppm. The reasons are as follows:
1. The amendment relies solely on written documents submitted by the applicant company Monsanto, which is too hasty.
According to information published by the Food and Drug Administration, this amendment originated from an import tolerance application filed by "Monsanto Far East Limited, Hong Kong," and the basis for the amendment was the written materials submitted by that company. Yet just last year, the Superior Court of California in the United States found that Monsanto had concealed experimental data on glyphosate's carcinogenic risk, and ruled that it must pay substantial compensation to the victims.
For the Food and Drug Administration to decide to relax the standard based solely on written documents submitted by Monsanto is truly too hasty.
2. There was no careful assessment of glyphosate's carcinogenic risk
The Food and Drug Administration, citing the assessment results of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority as its basis, concluded that glyphosate poses no cancer concern. However, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) under the World Health Organization classified glyphosate as a Group 2A substance possibly carcinogenic to humans as early as 2015, and in recent years academic studies have successively pointed out that glyphosate is genotoxic, and that even at extremely low concentrations, long-term human exposure to it can affect health.
The Food and Drug Administration should comprehensively consider information from all sides and re-examine glyphosate's carcinogenic risk carefully.
3. It should not open the door wide to imported miscellaneous grains containing glyphosate residues
For the barley, sorghum, millet and buckwheat items added this time, although Taiwanese farmers do grow them, there is absolutely no need or demand to raise their glyphosate residue tolerance levels.
The beneficiaries of this amendment are clearly imported miscellaneous grains containing residues of the herbicide glyphosate.
Based on the above three points, we strongly demand that the Food and Drug Administration withdraw this regulatory amendment and safeguard the dietary safety of all citizens.
[Organizers]
Taiwan GMO-Free Promotion Alliance, Homemakers United Foundation, Taiwan Homemakers United Cooperative, Viewpoint Seed Network, Campus Lunch Goes GMO-Free
[Reference materials]
- Draft amendment
https://www.mohw.gov.tw/cp-16-47386-1.html - Taiwan plans to drastically relax herbicide glyphosate residue levels! For 10 imported miscellaneous grains including wheat and oats, the maximum tolerance is 10 ppm
https://www.newsmarket.com.tw/blog/119293/ - Homemakers United firmly opposes the Food and Drug Administration's addition of pesticide glyphosate residue tolerance levels
https://www.huf.org.tw/news/content/4675 - Campus Lunch Goes GMO-Free's articles on glyphosate
https://reurl.cc/8zrmd