Changhua County cleanses its bad reputation: referendum on using locally produced ingredients from the Changnan Industrial Park for school nutrition lunches
Text by upstream and downstream reporters Wang Wen-hao and Lin Hui-chen
With the results of the 2014 county and city magistrate elections now settled, the food safety issue can be said to have been a key factor shaping the outcome. Before the election, candidates for county and city mayor made implementing food safety an important campaign pledge; after the election, how each county and city chief implements controls on agricultural products and food safety should become a focus of continued public oversight.
As a media outlet focused on issues such as agriculture, the environment and food, the upstream and downstream news market, in order to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the food safety policies of each re-elected or newly elected county and city chief, has launched the "From Agricultural Safety to Food Safety, A Question for County and City Magistrates" series of reports, conducting exclusive interviews with each county and city chief on how they respond to the environmental protection, agriculture and food safety issues that concern the public.
The first stop of the "From Agricultural Safety to Food Safety, A Question for County and City Magistrates" series of reports brought us to Changhua County - the land of fish and rice in central Taiwan, China. Changhua County is one of the top three counties in the country for the production of agricultural and livestock products, and is also a major hub where the food processing industry clusters in the central region, making it one of the main sources of supply for the daily diet of the people of Taiwan, China. This year it was tarnished by unscrupulous oil manufacturers.
Note: The county and city chiefs will hand over office on the 25th of this month. Some chiefs have already drawn up their small cabinet lists, at which point it will be possible to examine one by one how the elected officials implement their food safety policy pledges. The upstream and downstream will continue to follow up, and readers are also welcome to leave comments below the article regarding the governance of the county and city magistrates in their area; we will pass them on to each county and city chief for reference.