[From agricultural safety to food safety, we ask the county mayors]Taitung County: Non-GMO school lunches cost too much to promote hastily; promote the central kitchen system
"From Agricultural Safety to Food Safety, Asking the County and City Mayors" Series , the sixth stop, we come to Taitung County. In this county magistrate election in Taitung County, incumbent magistrate Huang Chien-ting was re-elected. In an interview with News&Market, he stressed that, coming from a business background, he attaches great importance to cost and benefit, so when he took office in his previous term, he stopped the policy of fully free nutritious lunches and used the funds saved to promote education-related affairs.
The viewpoint of cost and benefit also runs through all kinds of Huang Chien-ting's administrative measures. Before this general election, civil groups promoted a pledge for "non-GMO ingredients for campus lunches," but Taitung County did not sign it. Huang Chien-ting believes that switching to non-GMO ingredients will increase the burden on parents, "you can't just romantically sign it," and he also believes that the use of non-GMO ingredients on campuses should be ordered by the central government, not decided by individual counties and cities on their own.
Most elementary and junior high schools in Taitung are small schools, and more than 90 percent of schools have their own kitchens, but 77 percent of schools have fewer than 200 students. In order to improve the economic efficiency of meal provision, Huang Chien-ting promoted a central kitchen system for nutritious lunches this year, with the kitchen of one school supplying nutritious lunches to six to eight surrounding schools.
On the pre-election promise to promote organic cultivation in Taitung, Huang Chien-ting said that the Taitung County Government plans to provide state-owned land for organic planting, but also believes that "I will not say how many years later we will reach how much organic planting area, because these are all number games." Of course, the Taitung County Government is right to promote organic agriculture, but after all, it is farmers who do the planting, and it still depends on whether farmers want to switch to organic. This is not something that can be done just because the county government says it wants to do it.
Regarding the development of Taitung County, in recent years, in addition to the environmental impact assessment of the Beautiful Bay resort failing to pass, the "Hongye Hot Spring Scenic Specific Area Urban Plan" has also been one of the focal points of concern for local residents. This urban plan covers more than 50 hectares, with a total of 11 development permit zones and one "Indigenous Industry Special Zone" where hotels and restaurants can be built.
Some residents of the Hongye tribe worry that their land will be expropriated, and believe that building tourist hotels only benefits consortia, while promoting ecotourism and chemical-free agriculture is the direction local residents want. In response, Huang Chien-ting believes that the Hongye Hot Spring Scenic Specific Area merely provides an option, allowing willing landowners to operate leisure tourism uses and drive local development, while landowners unwilling to change can still maintain their original way of life.
The following is a summary of the News&Market reporter's exclusive interview with Taitung County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting.
Q: In the face of the endless food safety scandals in recent years, does the Taitung County Government have any response plan?
A: In the cooking oil scandals of recent years, Taitung was very fortunate that no school used problematic oil products, and as for the problematic oil products circulating in Taitung's market, we also handled them according to central government policy, dealing with them quickly and thoroughly, removing them from shelves when they should be removed.
At present, there is not much room for us to adjust manpower and funding for food safety. The Taitung County Health Bureau has three inspectors, and each of Taitung's 16 townships and towns has one inspector, for a total of 19 inspectors devoted to food safety inspection work. Food safety funding mainly comes from central government subsidies, and through Taitung County's efforts, it has gradually increased over the past three years, from 1 million in 2013 and 2 million in 2014 to 2.79 million in 2015.
We launched a "Food Hygiene Inspection" label certification mechanism. After county government inspectors check a restaurant, they put a label at the restaurant entrance and sign on it the date we inspected, proving that the oil products are safe. On the one hand, this gives businesses a fair deal, and on the other hand, it gives consumers confidence. However, this is not a case of one inspection and then no problem; we will continue to repeat inspections later. This is the gatekeeping mechanism we have established for food safety in Taitung County.
Q: The avian influenza outbreak that broke out this month has continued without stopping, and so far has not affected Taitung. What response measures does Taitung have for this?
A: Although the avian influenza outbreak has not yet affected Taitung, we are also very urgent here. Neighboring Pingtung County is a disaster area for the outbreak, so the Taitung County Government announced on January 16 that from January 17 to January 23, live waterfowl and land poultry from other counties and cities would be prohibited from entering Taitung. After we announced this, Hualien followed suit immediately.
After the ban was announced, there may be a situation of supply falling short of demand, but there is no way around it. The alternative is to use frozen meat. Goose meat shops will be affected, but Taitung's ginger duck shops told the county government that they are not affected because they mainly use frozen duck meat.
Seeing that the avian influenza outbreak showed no trend of slowing down, the Taitung County Government also announced an extension of another week, from January 24 to January 30, continuing to prohibit live waterfowl and land poultry from entering Taitung. Since the ban has already been activated, there is no reason for me to restore passage when the external environment is worsening. Before January 30, we will decide whether to continue maintaining the ban depending on the situation.
Prohibiting the entry of live waterfowl and land poultry into Taitung will of course affect the rights and interests of operators and consumers, but if the outbreak spreads to Taitung, the subsequent culling and industry recovery will be even more troublesome. Right now Hualien and Taitung have not yet been affected by avian influenza. We are preventing the outbreak from being introduced from other counties and cities, but if it flies down from the sky, then we will just have to accept it.
Q: When you interacted with Taitung civil groups before the election, you promised that after being elected you would guide conventional agriculture to transform into organic farming and add special organic agriculture zones. What methods will the county government use to promote organic agriculture? How much funding is expected to be allocated?
I believe promoting organic agriculture is a major trend. Taitung now has more than 700 hectares of organic agriculture planting area, the second largest in the country, second only to Hualien. Farmers need more encouragement to be willing to switch to organic. The county government's task is nothing more than providing funding subsidies and assistance in the certification process. We have established subsidy rules for organic facilities such as greenhouses, water storage facilities, and composting sheds, and also provide farmland soil testing and pesticide residue testing. This year the Taitung County Government allocated a budget of 4.33 million to subsidize farmers' organic certification fees.
As for the special organic agriculture zones, the Taitung County Government plans to use state-owned land to provide organic planting, create an organic agriculture demonstration area, and simultaneously implement a production and sales traceability system. We are still planning this part. I will not say how much organic planting area we will reach after how many years, because these are all number games. Of course, the Taitung County Government is right to promote organic agriculture, but after all, it is farmers who do the planting, and it still depends on whether farmers want to switch to organic. This is not something that can be done just because the county government says it wants to do it.
Q: Taitung County's elementary and junior high school nutritious lunches abolished the fully free policy five years ago. What is the current approximate cost of nutritious lunches? Does the county government have plans to adjust the cost of nutritious lunches?
A: Five years ago, when I served as Taitung County magistrate, the reason I decided to cancel Taitung County's fully free nutritious lunch policy was that Taitung County has nearly 19,000 elementary and junior high school students. If free nutritious lunches continued, it would cost 170 million a year, a heavy burden for financially strapped Taitung. After canceling the free nutritious lunch policy, it greatly helped the finances, and the money saved was returned to promoting education-related affairs.
At present, the cost of elementary and junior high school nutritious lunches in Taitung County is about 38 to 40 yuan per meal, not much different from neighboring counties and cities. Hualien is 35 to 40 yuan per meal, and Pingtung is 32 to 40 yuan per meal. In Taitung, 60 percent of parents pay the nutritious lunch fees themselves, and the remaining 40 percent of students have their nutritious lunch fees subsidized by the Taitung County Government, with an annual budget of nearly 90 million. Considering the burden on parents, we currently have no plan to raise the nutritious lunch fees.
Q: In September this year, Taitung County will trial a central kitchen system for nutritious lunches, using three schools as central kitchens to supply nutritious lunches to surrounding schools within half an hour's drive. Why promote this measure? What benefits are expected?
A: This year we will promote a central kitchen system for nutritious lunches, with Fuyuan Elementary School, Guanshan Elementary School, and Beinan Elementary School as the three trial elementary schools. Fuyuan Elementary School will be responsible for nutritious lunches for schools in Chishang Township and Haiduan Township, Guanshan Elementary School will be responsible for Guanshan Township, and Beinan Elementary School will be responsible for Beinan Township, with each school on average responsible for the nutritious lunches of six to eight schools. If the results are good, we also plan to expand it.
Taitung County has 110 elementary and junior high schools, and 96 percent of schools have their own kitchens. Only four schools do not have their own kitchens and use group meal services or meals supplied by other school kitchens. However, there are 86 elementary and junior high schools with fewer than 200 students, accounting for 77 percent. These schools have to maintain their own kitchens, and the maintenance cost is high while the economic benefit is very low.
Taitung County's situation is different from other counties and cities. Counties and cities with large populations also have large school enrollments, and merely supplying their own schools from their own kitchens reaches the scale of economic efficiency. But Taitung is not like this. There are more than 20 schools with fewer than 50 students in the whole school. Maintaining a kitchen and hiring kitchen workers for 50 students does not conform to economic efficiency. I studied business and attach great importance to efficiency, so the idea I proposed is to select one school in an area as a central kitchen, save the funds originally needed to maintain several kitchens, and just take good care of the central kitchen to ensure that the lunches produced are the safest, most hygienic, and healthiest, and then deliver them to surrounding schools. I think that considering this measure from the perspectives of economy, health, and hygiene, it is good for Taitung.
Q: The Chenggong Township Farmers' Association in Taitung County undertook the business of providing ingredients for campus lunches (http://ppt.cc/IFXX), guiding local farmers to form vegetable production and marketing groups, letting schoolchildren eat local ingredients, reducing ingredient transportation costs, and also increasing the proportion of local ingredients in nutritious lunches. Does the county government plan to refer to the experience of the Chenggong Township Farmers' Association to promote the use of local ingredients in nutritious lunches?
A: The Chenggong Township Farmers' Association contracts with local farmers to supply local schools and increase the proportion of local ingredients used. This experience is quite good. But there is a premise: because the farmers' association has a high degree of connection with farmers and knows what farmers grow and how they grow it, other winning bidder vendors for nutritious lunches may not understand this so well, and in procurement they may not be willing to put in the effort to buy this and that from many farmers. I think that if they are required to procure local ingredients, after costs rise, what will suffer is that the ingredients children eat will become worse.
Therefore, up to now we have encouraged the use of local ingredients in nutritious lunches, but cannot mandate it. Moreover, Taitung's supply and demand of ingredients cannot be fully self-sufficient. Take vegetables: the vast majority of vegetables in Taitung still come from the west. However, the supply of rice is no problem. The rice eaten in Taitung's nutritious lunches now is all locally produced rice from Taitung.
Increasing local ingredients in nutritious lunches is of course a good thing, but I think it mainly depends on crop yields. Of course we encourage schools to use more local ingredients, but we cannot explicitly require it in contracts.
Q: The quality and source of ingredients for nutritious lunches are increasingly valued by parents. Before this general election, civil groups also promoted a pledge for "non-GMO ingredients for campus lunches" (http://ppt.cc/Nqy8), asking candidates whether they are willing to promote the use of non-GMO ingredients in campus lunches. What is your view on GM foods? Does the county government have plans to promote non-GMO campus lunches? If so, how is it expected to be promoted? If not, what is the main difficulty?
A: When I ran for Taitung County magistrate, I did not sign this pledge because the safety of GM foods is still a matter of debate, with no clear scientific evidence showing an impact on the human body, and our country has not banned GM foods either. This should be a national policy, not something left to each county and city to decide on its own. I do not think it should be like that. If GM foods were clearly harmful to the human body, the whole country should adopt a consistent approach, and I think it seems inappropriate to promote it in just one county or city. At present, our Taiwanese farmers cannot plant GM crops, and GM foods on the Taiwanese market must all be imported. If the central government restricted the import of GM foods, Taiwan would not have this problem.
Another reason I did not sign is that I must consider the burden on parents. Take tofu, commonly used in school nutritious lunches, as an example. A box of GM tofu is 8 yuan, while a box of non-GMO tofu is 25 yuan, a threefold increase in price. Then look at soy sauce. The Kimlan soy sauce commonly used by most schools in Taitung is 200 yuan for a 3,000-milliliter bottle. If changed to non-GMO soy sauce, it is 300 yuan for 600 milliliters, a full seven times more expensive.
In the current nutritious lunch funding in Taitung, 60 percent of students have their fees paid by parents, and the remaining 40 percent are covered by the government. If non-GMO ingredients are used, the cost of nutritious lunches will rise, the burden on parents will become relatively heavier, and it will also be a burden for the financially strapped Taitung County Government. Considering these, I will not very romantically sign the pledge for "non-GMO ingredients for campus lunches."
Q: At the end of November last year, the Ministry of Education proposed a plan for public-run private operation of small schools (http://ppt.cc/Jzsr), handing remote small schools over to civil groups to operate and encouraging educational innovation. When school started last September, two schools in Taitung County had only one new student registered, and the original plan to merge eight elementary schools was postponed because the number of villagers agreeing was less than half. What plans and methods does the county government have for the direction of small school operation under the declining birthrate?
A: Because Taitung County is located in a remote area, the county has only two private schools, Junyi Elementary and Junior High School and Yujen Middle School. If small schools are publicly run and privately operated, it can indeed increase county residents' options for educational diversity, but we must think about what the educational goal of public-run private schools is. How can educational quality be ensured? Can parents feel at ease letting civil groups operate public schools?
After all, public-run private schools are public schools. If low tuition is maintained while also maintaining good teaching quality, will they face financial difficulties, and can they operate for the long term? If fees are raised, then they become elite schools. Given the situation in Taitung County where small schools are the majority, this is because local industry is not prosperous enough to keep people, and the population has been lost over the long term. In such a place, establishing elite schools would mostly attract students from elsewhere, and how would local residents feel about that?
I very much respect the Ministry of Education's promotion of public-run private operation of small schools, but whether it is actually feasible depends on actual operating conditions. At present, no civil group has approached the Taitung County Government for consultation. If a group applies, we will very carefully assess their educational and financial capabilities.
Compared with public-run private operation, educational innovation under public operation is actually more feasible. However, because this is experimental education in nature, not all parents may accept it. This is not something the magistrate alone can decide, nor something the education department can decide on its own. Educational innovation under public operation requires building a lot of consensus to be promoted smoothly.
As for the issue of school closure and merger, during my previous term as magistrate I closed one elementary school. At present, several schools in Taitung County are also planned for closure and merger, including the three branch schools with the smallest student numbers: Kanding Elementary School Hongshi Branch, Wanshan Elementary School Zhenxing Branch, and Anshuo Elementary School Xinhua Branch. In addition, Heping Elementary School and Bo'ai Elementary School are also on the list of schools to be closed and merged, and may be closed or converted into branch schools.
The issue of school closure and merger is not about which schools are planned, but the key lies in whether it can actually be done. The difficulty Taitung faces in handling small school closure and merger is that schools in Indigenous areas are governed by the Indigenous Peoples Education Act, and before closure and merger can be promoted, more than half of local citizens must agree.
I believe the reason for closing and merging schools is not to save money; the key lies in the children's learning outcomes. How can you do group teaching with only two students in a class? With so few children, there cannot be many teachers either, and teachers have no colleagues to support and learn from each other. In the past, schools were widely established because the area was vast and transportation was inconvenient. Now transportation is very convenient. From one school to another, school buses can handle it with no problem at all. Just like promoting central kitchens for nutritious lunches, one school can supply lunches to other schools within half an hour's drive, which shows transportation is no longer a big problem.
Another issue communities worry about is whether the disappearance of the school will make community development worse and even more difficult. In response, our current approach is to revitalize idle campuses, with civil groups submitting proposals and the county government selecting operating groups. Therefore, these spaces may be used for health care, catering training, meditation, activity bases, and so on, full of various possibilities. For example, after Huayuan Branch of Sanhe Elementary School in Taimali Township was closed, it will be used for elderly medical care and long-term care, and a hospital will also be set up. Sanhe Elementary School Xiushan Branch is operated by the Slee Group and will serve as a training base for catering talent.
After the revitalization of idle campuses, our goal is to invigorate local development even more than when they were schools and to drive local employment opportunities.
Q: The "Hongye Hot Spring Scenic Specific Area Urban Plan" in Yanping Township, Taitung County covers more than 50 hectares, with a total of 11 development permit zones and one "Indigenous Industry Special Zone" where hotels and restaurants can be built. Some residents of the Hongye tribe worry that their land will be expropriated, and believe that building tourist hotels only benefits consortia, while promoting ecotourism and chemical-free agriculture is the direction local residents want. What is your view on this urban plan? How will you respond to the voices of local residents?
A: The county government has never said what it wants to promote in the Hongye Hot Spring Scenic Specific Area; it merely provides an option. This urban plan is like this: in the 76th year of the Republic of China, the then Taitung County Government, in view of the fact that this large area had no development at all and the population was outflowing, after assessing local characteristics, planned it as a specific area for Hongye Hot Spring. If landowners are willing to develop, they can engage in leisure tourism-related uses, but if landowners do not develop, they maintain their original lives. The county government merely gives residents one more option and has never said it would carry out large-scale development locally.
The Hongye Hot Spring Scenic Specific Area was planned more than 20 years ago, and in the past year or two it is still the same plan. The local land is all Indigenous reserved land. No matter how it is developed, the landowners must be Indigenous. There is absolutely no problem of Han Chinese intruding into Indigenous land for development.
For local development, the county government adopts a development permit system. For places where the hillside is not so steep, if it is more than 1 hectare you can apply for development. As for what kind of development is applied for, catering and tourism and various aspects are all possible, and we review according to procedures.
The county government absolutely thinks from the standpoint of local residents, and absolutely does not seek to benefit consortia. We have also heard the voices of local residents. Hongye has hot springs, a rich ecological environment, and Bunun culture. The county government also very much supports local development of chemical-free agriculture and ecotourism. However, if development is scattered, and public facilities and services do not correspond in support, more problems may arise. Therefore, under the county government's layer-by-layer gatekeeping, we plan through this urban plan to give tribal residents a chance to develop.