Genetically modified foods have become the widest food safety gap between the Taiwan, China government and the public
In 2015, what stood furthest apart between the Taiwan government and the public on food safety was not distance, but mindset.
At the Executive Yuan science and technology meeting held on January 26, it was announced that drafting of a "Genetically Modified Technology Management Act" would continue to be promoted, that regulatory restrictions would be relaxed, and that trade exports of "GM crop cultivation and animal farming" would be planned, in an attempt to use the research and development output of biotechnology to seize a global market worth hundreds of billions.
At the same time, in view of last year's trial planting of 6 hectares of "non-GM soybeans" that produced about 10,000 kilograms and sold out instantly, Taiwan Sugar Corporation increased production 4-fold this year to attack the market. The Xiluo Farmers' Association also stated that it would carry out large-scale replanting of non-GM soybeans on fallow fields through contract farming or land leasing, and cooperate with factories to produce locally made non-GM tofu skin products.
Comparing the two pieces of news, this is the furthest distance between the Taiwan government and the public in 2015.
Food has its value
"No problem, this food won't kill you if you eat it, really! It's been on the market for almost twenty years and no one has died from eating it, so please buy with confidence!" Can you imagine a market vendor saying such a thing to you? But that is exactly what many scholars and experts who support GM food say when facing numerous doubts about the health and safety risks of GM food to the human body.
They claim that since GM crops were commercially planted in 1996, there has been no evidence showing that anyone has died from eating GM food, so the public should eat it with peace of mind, and they themselves would also give priority to buying GM food. A familiar-sounding argument has appeared repeatedly in Taiwan's food safety incidents in recent years involving feed oil, melamine, ractopamine, and so on. For a Taiwanese society that prides itself on a rich culinary culture, by the 21st century the food standard has actually sunk to the level of "as long as it doesn't kill people, it's fine."
What lies behind GM food are social issues such as herbicide abuse, environmental pollution, and multinational agribusiness controlling the global food supply. When you eat GM food, that is the value you are accepting. However, experts who support GM food all say that we should first talk only about scientific facts, and that so-called values or social issues can be set aside and not discussed for now.
In recent years, food safety storms have come one after another. From the government and manufacturers to the public, everyone talks about "eating local and loving Taiwan" and "reviving Taiwan's culinary culture." Shouldn't we get to know properly, starting from eating behavior, the value of food itself?
Organic is the goal
"Only now do I realize that even a loser like me can afford a supercar." A friend pointed at the boxed tofu on the convenience store shelf and said jokingly.
People who criticize the non-GM movement often claim that non-GM food costs several times more than GM food, and some even use "supercars and domestic cars" as an analogy to mock the excessively high cost of non-GM ingredients. Allow me to repeat once more, without tiring of it: non-GM food is not organic food. Taking a 300-gram box of GM and non-GM tofu as an example, the price difference between the two major brands sold through retail channels is about 2-3 yuan, around 10-20 percent of the selling price. This is something you can understand just by taking a walk around a hypermarket or supermarket. Could it be that these food authorities or so-called food experts have never bought groceries?
In addition to trying to mislead with price, some also claim that the groups behind Taiwan's promotion of the non-GM movement are mainly organic food businesses, and that even protest actions were timed just before school lunch tenders, making their intentions obvious. In an era when the authority of expert knowledge has been deconstructed, if Taiwan's current wave of non-GM activism could be stirred up merely by arousing public fear or encouragement from specific businesses, then that would be greatly underestimating the subjectivity and judgment of Taiwan's citizens.
Because the conditions and specifications for cultivation, packaging, and distribution differ, non-GM products are much cheaper than organic products. In terms of food safety requirements, what ordinary people and civic groups are demanding with non-GM is really only the minimum standard. Please stop deliberately using organic food channels or prices as a pretext to try to blur the focus of grassroots action.
Restoring the land is more practical than developing GM crops
"Taiwan should encourage the production of GM crops and seize the international market!" Where on earth does this confidence come from?
The reality Taiwan faces is that its food self-sufficiency rate is only 30 percent, and much arable farmland is gradually decreasing due to factors such as industrial policy, environmental pollution, land speculation, brain drain, and supply-demand imbalance. Major countries growing GM crops worldwide, such as the United States and Brazil, all adopt large-area planting to reduce production costs. Under Taiwan's current conditions, GM crops would never be the best answer the government could find among the long list of agricultural problems it needs to solve.
Having healthy land is the most fundamental condition for food production. This year happens to be the International Year of Soils. Rather than trying every possible way to open Taiwan up to growing GM crops for export to boost the economy, the government would do better to invest that funding in the environmental and ecological conservation of farmland. That is the fundamental way to love Taiwan.
The original text was published on February 10, 2015 in Independent Review @ CommonWealth<Developing GM crops is not the cure for Taiwan's food problem>, and this article has been slightly polished.