Thirty years of shared karma in the betel nut industry, the government's negligence is hard to escape blame

Thousands of bees convulsed and died on the ground, the cause of death being pesticide poisoning, and betel nut pollen was found in the hives. Reporters from "Upstream and Downstream" followed the trail, and unexpectedly stumbled into the vast and wild kingdom of betel nut.

Shuttling through the dense forest, we suddenly discovered the government's "three noes policy" toward betel nut: no guidance, no encouragement, no prohibition, leaving the entire betel nut industry in a state of anarchy for years, like an all-encompassing black net, weaving a shared historical karma that leaves people dumbfounded, affecting the island's ecology and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. Once the black net was pulled open in one breath, more than ten types of pesticides and four types of heavy metal residues were shockingly revealed, with explosive findings everywhere, but unexpected treasures were also dug up. On the island of Taiwan there are 40,000 hectares of betel nut plantations living alongside us, equivalent to 1.5 times the size of Taipei City. Whether or not you chew betel nut, you must pay attention.

Explosive finding one: The second-largest crop in Taiwan, with no one regulating pesticide spraying

Betel nut is Taiwan's second-largest crop after rice, and the first among "fruit products." The government clearly knows that farmers have a need for pesticide use, yet has completely no recommended pesticides at all, which amounts to "growing betel nut means you cannot spray pesticides," with no standards and no guidance whatsoever. Farmers have no choice but to "improvise freely," spraying whatever the pesticide shops sell. "Upstream and Downstream" went to sampling sites in the central and southern production areas to collect betel nut, betel leaf, and dead bees for testing, and found alarming pesticide residues, with a long list of pesticide names like a pesticide cocktail, and the banned pesticide fipronil also appeared. One betel leaf sample even had as many as 19 pesticide residues, with illegal exceedances constituting ironclad evidence.

Pesticide use behavior on 40,000 hectares of farmland is completely unregulated. Not only do bees suffer innocently, but it also causes a massive ecological disaster. Farmers spraying pesticides everywhere also suffer harm themselves. At the end, there is also no sampling and gatekeeping mechanism, leaving the million people who chew betel nut completely exposed to pesticide risks without defense, especially since betel nut is addictive, and heavy chewers are common.