Selected important news on GMOs in Taiwan, China: January 2015
Following the campus lunch anti-GMO action team's launch of Taiwan, China's first "2014 Top Ten GMO News" voting event on December 18 last year, this year the team will continue to follow GMO-related news in Taiwan, China, and plans to announce the previous month's important GMO news at the beginning of each month, to share with citizen partners concerned about this issue. Except for special recommendations, news events are listed in order from most recent to oldest by publication date.
News dates: 2014/12/18 to 2015/1/31
[Special Recommendation]NewsMarket Special Feature – From Agricultural Safety to Food Safety: Questions for County and City Mayors
In the special report "From Agricultural Safety to Food Safety: Questions for County and City Mayors" produced by NewsMarket, eight county and city heads have so far been interviewed, including Changhua, Hsinchu, Yilan, Taipei, Chiayi, Taitung, Lienchiang and Nantou. Except for Taitung County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting, who clearly stated that due to financial considerations he would not romantically promote non-GMO campus lunches, the other seven all promised to implement the policy of removing GMO foods from campus lunches through strategies such as local agriculture, local production and local consumption, or increased funding.
Kimlan Foods announced that six of its brands will switch to non-genetically modified soybean soy sauce. Due to increased ingredient costs, the prices of the six products will be raised by 7-10%. Kimlan Foods also estimates that by 2018, all of its more than one hundred products that use soy sauce will switch entirely to non-GMO soybeans, hoping to encourage Taiwan, China's brewing industry to switch to non-GMO soybeans.
Executive Yuan takes the lead to target the hundred-billion GMO market(2015/1/26)
The Executive Yuan Board of Science and Technology says it has been promoting the drafting of the "Genetically Modified Technology Management Act," focusing first on trade exports of "genetically modified crop cultivation and animal farming" and relaxing related restrictions, in order to encourage domestic GMO animal and plant research and production and capture the international hundred-billion market.
Feed Management Act amendment passes third reading, GMO feed brought under source management(2015/1/24)
The Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of the Feed Management Act amendment, specifying that feed or feed additives may not be used to manufacture or process food; violators face a maximum fine of 3 million, and if the benefits obtained exceed the statutory maximum fine, they will face a fine of up to 10 times the sales amount during the period of violation. The Council of Agriculture should compile feed and feed additive manufacturing registration certificates, import registration certificates, and genetically modified feed, and build a tracking system database that publicly discloses the sources and flow of feed and feed additives.
The Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station released a new soybean variety, "Kaohsiung No. 12," unveiled on the 22nd in Meinong. Zhou Guolong, head of the Crop Improvement Section, said: "Kaohsiung No. 12, also known as 'Green Jade,' is suitable for dual use as edamame and soybean. Through trial cultivation by farmers, not only is soybean yield 50% higher than other varieties, but the quality is also excellent, with quite a lot of pods containing 3 beans each. With high yield and good quality, it is expected to enhance the competitiveness of our country's edamame green gold industry in the future.
Nutritional lunch Taipei parents: want non-GMO, more organic vegetables(2015/1/21)
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je called for a 10 yuan increase in nutritional lunch fees. The Taipei City Department of Education invited parents, schools and vendors in the afternoon to discuss and consolidate opinions. Parent groups tended to agree to the price increase with conditions, and proposed four major conditions: use of non-GMO ingredients, increased use of organic vegetables, reduced use of processed foods, and establishment of production traceability.
Taipei sets a precedent Bulk and GMO foods must be labeled with placeof origin(2015/1/20)
Taipei will establish a food safety committee before the end of March, and has already drafted the "Taipei City Food Safety Self-Governance Ordinance." In the future, standard operating procedures will be incorporated into food safety management, and it will be the first in the country to require vendors selling bulk foods to clearly label the product name, place of origin, and "other items that should be labeled." Wang Ming-li, director of the Department of Health's Food and Drug Division, used soy milk shops as an example: is the soybean source for the soy milk genetically modified food? How many degrees can the tableware withstand? In the future, stores will be responsible for public notice.
The results of the "2014 Taiwan, China Top Ten GMO News Vote," initiated by the campus lunch anti-GMO action team and lasting two weeks, were revealed. "Candidates sign pledges for GMO foods to exit campuses" received more than 80% of the votes and became the most closely watched news event, followed by "civil parades responding to the global March Against Monsanto" and "genetically modified food ingredients written into law," each with more than 60% support.
The Taiwan Environmental Information Association, through frontline reporters, issue observation writers, long-term collaborating translators, plus the editorial office, jointly recommended 20 environmental news items each for Taiwan, China and international. Citizens concerned about environmental news were invited to vote together to select representative environmental news at home and abroad, and on 12/31 the results of the top ten environmental news votes for Taiwan, China and international were announced on the website. Among them, "Food Safety Act amendment: compound verification, not one GMO labeling requirement can be missing" was selected as the second most important environmental news of 2014.
Food and Drug Administration makes a turn GMO labeling changed to be implementedmid-2015(2014/12/24)
On 12/22, the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Food and Drug Administration announced three regulations including the "Matters to Be Complied With for Labeling of Packaged Foods Containing Genetically Modified Food Ingredients," the "Matters to Be Complied With for Labeling of Food Additives Containing Genetically Modified Food Ingredients," and the "Matters to Be Complied With for Labeling of Bulk Foods Containing Genetically Modified Food Ingredients," mainly based on Article 22, Paragraph 3, Article 24, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 9, Article 24, Paragraph 2, and Article 25, Paragraph 2 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation passed at the beginning of this year regarding the regulatory scope for genetically modified food ingredients. They will take effect starting January 1, 2016.