Confined farming problems occur every year, and Chen Shixiong questions whether they can be solved.

By Chen Shih-hsiung (PhD in Agriculture, Dean of the College of Science and Technology at Nanhua University, Executive Director of the Taiwan Organic Industry Promotion Association)

Let us join together to "educate" the officials of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine: what is the correct, humane way to raise animals?

Why do I use the word "educate"? My wife asked me to change it to "suggest," but I insisted on "educate," because in 2008 we invited IFOAM President Catherine to Taiwan, and when she paid a courtesy call on the officials of the Council of Agriculture, we found that many ideas simply could not be communicated. Our country's officials stubbornly clung to their own views and seemed to attach little importance to organic agriculture. So when I spoke at the annual conference of the "Taiwan Organic Industry Promotion Association," which I founded, I spoke from the heart and earnestly said: "Your association should educate the government." I believe the United States has the same problem.

Many officials are not from this field, do not study seriously, and assume they are always right. They are also unwilling to consult genuine experts, shutting themselves off from the outside world, formulating wrong policies, never engaging in self-reflection, only currying favor with their superiors and with financial conglomerates, treating ordinary people as if they were nothing. They truly need to be "educated" again.

Natural semi-open chicken houses: hatching eggs on their own to preserve breeds and reduce viral infection

My farm is 3100 sq m, with a 180 sq m semi-open chicken house that has perches and nest boxes. Half is for raising chickens, half for growing vegetables. The 90 sq m chicken house holds only 50 hens and 3 roosters. Actually, it could hold more than a hundred, but I only use it for teaching demonstrations, and especially because my wife does not allow it, so I keep only 53. Every two years, it is swapped with the vegetable garden through crop rotation.

Outside the chicken house there is a 2900 sq m grassland orchard. The hens lay eggs every morning and have 3~4 hours in the afternoon to stroll on the grass.

I raise black soldier flies on non-GMO okara to feed the chickens. The farm's leftover vegetable leaves and fruit can all be used to feed the insects and the chickens, so there is no waste at all.

The chicken house is sprayed with EM bacteria once a week. The chicken house has no smell at all, and the chicken manure is completely decomposed within 3 hours. My bacterial strain came from Cai Gui-hui, the owner of Colored Egg, mainly to decompose animal waste, mixed with the EM (effective microorganism) culture introduced by Vice Chairman Lin of Delin.

The hens hatch the eggs themselves, so no outside chickens are brought in and there is no problem of viral infection. At the same time, this is also a very important mechanism for preserving original breeds. Otherwise, since the Green Revolution to now, 96% of crop varieties have already disappeared, and if things continue according to the farming methods currently promoted by the government, many important genetic sources will go extinct.

This kind of farming method fully complies with, and even exceeds, the EU regulations on raising animals in a humane way. It also meets the requirements of zero pollution, zero waste, and low carbon emissions. A farming method like this, which keeps animals healthy in body and mind and naturally resistant to disease, is exactly the animal farming method that our country's agricultural authorities should promote. Instead of blindly promoting "closed farming factories" and superstitious faith in vaccines.

If this method really could effectively prevent and control avian flu, why does avian flu occur every year? And there are often new variants, getting worse and worse.

So a few days ago, when I saw media reports that officials of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine were going to crack down on a small farmer raising 150 chickens, with a fine of 30,000 yuan, I was truly furious. How can there be such antiquated officials anywhere in the world? If there really is a legal basis like this, it should be amended immediately, rather than foolishly insisting on cracking down and becoming an international laughingstock.