The Basic Act on Food Education was promoted by the Japanese cabinet; where is the Taiwan, China version?

The key point of Yao Wen-chih's draft Food and Farming Education Act is to let consumers understand food production environments, food manufacturing processes and distribution, and other stages of food production, and further understand what truly constitutes a healthy diet. Through courses, course discussions, hands-on experiences and other methods, students learn about topics such as "understanding and cultivating soil," "observation of farms and natural organisms," "food additives," "food miles" and "dietary ethics and culture," and further value local healthy eating.

Yao's draft Food and Farming Education Act is expected to "establish a certification mechanism for food and farming education institutions and personnel," with the central government explicitly requiring teachers and students in junior high, elementary and senior high schools to receive more than four hours of food and farming education training courses each year, and to implement dietary education through "formulating food and farming learning courses and teaching materials."

The draft Basic Act on Food and Farming Education proposed by Chen Man-li, by contrast, emphasizes all citizens engaging in agricultural experience and hands-on practice, re-establishing the connection between people and food, and between people and land, recovering feelings and ethics toward the environmental ecology, and further revitalizing local economies, reviving agriculture, and fostering a friendly ecological environment.

Chen Man-li advocates taking "local counties and cities" as the core, establishing "local food and farming education promotion committees," emphasizing that "this is the most important executing unit for food and farming education policy," and, according to local characteristics, formulating "local food and farming education action plans," with evaluation and oversight carried out by experts and scholars within the committees, civic groups, and local public opinion bodies.

Although the Yao and Chen drafts differ in content, they share a common consensus on two aspects: "the Council of Agriculture serving as the main responsible agency" and "establishing a cross-departmental shokuiku committee for coordination," regarding the Council of Agriculture as the main promoting ministry for food and farming education.

Expected to make the Council of Agriculture the main responsible agency; civil groups: parallel units make coordination difficult

Compared with Taiwan, China placing the promotion of food and farming education under the Council of Agriculture, Japan's Basic Act on Shokuiku has a much higher administrative level. Japan sets up a "Shokuiku Promotion Council" under the Cabinet, formulates a "Basic Plan for Shokuiku," and then has each ministry (Agriculture and Water, Education, Health) promote related matters respectively; for example, the school portion belongs to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and each prefecture and municipality must formulate a shokuiku promotion plan, with 100% of local public bodies expected to complete formulation after five years.

Although the "Shokuiku Promotion Council" is not fully mandatory, and to date more than 20% of municipalities still have not set a basic shokuiku plan. But because it is a Cabinet promotion council, the content it proposes is regarded as national policy, and the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water, the Ministry of Health and others will certainly carry out their duties.

Chang Ming-chun pointed out that currently both legislators' versions set the main responsible agency as the Council of Agriculture, but the Ministry of Education, the Council of Agriculture and others are all parallel units, "there may be problems with the actual jurisdiction and responsibilities," and suggested that the Premier of the Executive Yuan should step forward to oversee the operation of the committee, "at least have one unit of a relatively higher level intervene, so that if disputes arise among ministries they can be better coordinated."

As for the Chen Man-li version of the Basic Act on Food and Farming Education setting the oversight body of the "local food and farming education promotion committee" as the "local public opinion body," Chang Ming-chun believes, "it would be better to entrust civic groups to serve as third-party oversight"; if local elected representatives oversee it, there may be concerns about political manipulation.

As for whether promoting the Basic Act on Shokuiku should adopt an incentive system or a penalty system, Chang Ming-chun said, "I suggest still focusing on an incentive system," and through incentives pushing schools to give priority to allocating education funds, rewarding teachers for participating in agricultural and food group lectures and other methods, raising schools' willingness to participate, "don't let shokuiku become a thankless chore."

Chou Chia-hui, deputy chief executive of the Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation, regarding the "shokuiku certification mechanism," said that certification seems the most effective, but it may also make the entire dietary education operation "get stuck," "because many local farmers do not know how to apply for certification, but they are often the people most closely connected to local food," and if only "certification" is emphasized, while local farmers cannot enter the shokuiku system, that would be a great pity.

All parties are willing to actively promote it, pending discussion after the Executive Yuan version draft is published

Currently civil groups and legislators have all put forward views and discussions related to the Basic Act on Shokuiku; Li Ding-tsan, convener of the Food and Farming Education Legislative Promotion Alliance, said, "we are optimistic about its success," and all parties have opinions worth adopting.

All parties also said, "everything still has to wait until the Council of Agriculture puts forward the Executive Yuan version draft before discussion can begin." Chang Ming-chun said bluntly that although the Council of Agriculture is indeed shouldering many drafts that need to be studied and drafted, "but shokuiku really cannot be delayed any longer!"

Li Ding-tsan also believes that only by first establishing the Basic Act on Shokuiku, and through the full operation of the system and driving the infusion of education funds, can shokuiku possibly be promoted and implemented.

Introduction to Japan's Basic Act on Shokuiku

Shokuiku policy is not just food safety, but overall national land planning - the JA that walks ahead of consumers