Non-GMO school lunches are environmental education from the land to the table
Chen Ju-wei / Co-founder of the Campus Lunch Go Non-GMO Action Team
Taiwan has seen a string of food safety scandals in recent years, and whenever a warning sign appears, the safety and nutrition of school lunch ingredients are often the first indicators to be examined. Observers have suggested that genetically modified crops are likely the next problem waiting to explode. Before and after the election, 17 county and city heads across Taiwan signed the "Keep GMO Ingredients Out of Schools" pledge initiated by the Campus Lunch Go Non-GMO action team. After the election, Yilan County Magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien, Hsinchu County Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun, Changhua County Magistrate Wei Ming-ku, Hsinchu City Mayor Lin Chih-chien, Lienchiang County Magistrate Liu Cheng-ying and Nantou County Magistrate Lin Ming-chen all said in media interviews that they intended to achieve this goal through local production for local consumption or local agriculture.
Recently Yilan County held a "Food and Agriculture Education Legislation Forum" jointly planned by academics, NGOs, legislators and government departments, to discuss the current state of food and agriculture education and review related regulations. Together with the public hearing on the Food and Agriculture Education Act convened by legislator Yao Wen-chih, the "Little Farm, Little Farmer Program" planned and promoted by the Taipei City Government, and the "Our Grain School" initiative launched by civil society, which now involves more than a hundred schools, food and agriculture education in Taiwan is clearly gaining momentum. It is also a good moment for us to reflect : schools are places of education, and discussing non-GMO school lunches should not be limited to the food safety dimension alone; it should be elevated to the perspective of environmental education.
Feed-grade GMO soy products flood schools, raising concerns about children's food safety
School lunches contain feed-grade GMO soybean products such as tofu, dried tofu, tofu skin, miso soup or soy milk almost every day, and in some vegetarian menus there are even more than two such dishes in a single day. Because GMO soybeans are resistant to the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate), they can be sprayed heavily during cultivation without dying, so high pesticide residues are a widespread problem.
The food safety controversy over GMO foods rages on and remains unresolved to this day. For example, academics have presented conclusions from animal experiments estimating that the effects of large-scale consumption of GMO foods on the human body will only gradually become apparent after about 30 years. Commercial cultivation of GMO crops has lasted only 18 years, and Taiwanese schoolchildren who eat large amounts of GMO soybean products at school are like the white mice of a global GMO clinical experiment; no one can guarantee how their health will be affected in the future. When facing possible risks, the government should take precautionary measures in advance, and the best approach is to keep growing children from eating GMO foods.
The environmental education content of non-GMO school lunches
Article 1 of the Environmental Education Act, passed and implemented in 2011, states at the outset: "To promote environmental education, to foster among citizens an understanding of the interdependence between individuals, society and the environment, to enhance environmental ethics and responsibility among all people, and thereby to maintain ecological balance, respect life, promote social justice, and cultivate environmental citizens and environmental learning communities so as to achieve sustainable development, this Act is hereby enacted."
More than 99% of Taiwan's soybeans are imported, and ninety percent or more of these are feed-grade GMO soybeans. School lunches include a soy product almost every day. With such a low self-sufficiency rate and such a high level of consumption, is this not precisely the best opportunity to talk with schoolchildren about the global food supply chain and food culture?
In addition, it is well known that GMO soybeans are resistant to Roundup (herbicide), leading farmers to spray large amounts of pesticide in pursuit of cultivation efficiency. This not only directly affects producers' health and the biodiversity of production areas, but also leaves crops with higher pesticide residues. This involves environmental injustice, ecological imbalance, bioethics and the meaning of sustainable development, and is one of the social impacts hotly debated around the world today.
In terms of the spirit of environmental education, which aims to enhance citizens' knowledge, skills, attitudes and values regarding environmental protection and to generate action, the non-GMO school lunch initiative is nothing less than the best opportunity for practice.
Non-GMO school lunches: environmental education from the land to the table
The removal of GMO soybean products from school lunches that we advocate is not merely a single action to protect children's health, but also an educational opportunity. In the case of GMO soybeans, the dimensions involved include Taiwan's food self-sufficiency rate, ecological protection, pesticide residues, health risks, global food culture and environmental fairness and justice. Whether in the learning domains of social studies, humanities, natural science, language, health or life, related courses can incorporate this issue that is so closely tied to daily life and discuss it with schoolchildren. If combined with food and agriculture courses on growing non-GMO soybeans and other coarse grains, it can become one of the best examples of a complete environmental education system from the land to the table.
For example, the "Our Grain School" jointly promoted by the National Federation of Teachers' Unions and the Happy Wheat Contract Farming Farmers Group has now been joined by more than a hundred schools across Taiwan, and is a case well worth referencing by county and city education bureaus when promoting food and agriculture education.
Strategic thinking on environmental action for GMO-free schools
We are well aware that conditions differ across regions of the country, and a complete withdrawal of GMO ingredients from school lunches cannot be achieved overnight. However, if the government, schools and parents can jointly participate in planning phased practical goals, this is a fully achievable environmental action.
In the first phase, the government education bureaus and departments in charge of lunch operations can begin by taking stock of soy product consumption in schools, estimate the funds needed to fully replace them with non-GMO foods, then discuss with agricultural departments the possibility of local or regional joint supply, and further assess whether farmers can be encouraged to switch to growing coarse grains to raise the local food self-sufficiency rate.
As for schools, because the GMO issue spans dimensions such as land, health, science, culture and ethics, it can be integrated into courses in language, social studies, natural science and so on. If paired with the currently popular hands-on food and agriculture activities, it becomes a complete model of school environmental education.
On the parents' side, the first step can be to demand that menus implement GMO labeling, since the government already has a traceability system and dedicated import commodity codes for GMO crops, so labeling is an immediately feasible option. At the same time, through parent-teacher association mechanisms, parents can work with schools to set timetables and strategies for using non-GMO ingredients in lunches.
If the avian flu outbreak currently erupting in Taiwan reflects a backlash from industrialized intensive livestock farming, then non-GMO school lunches are our early warning action taken after becoming aware in advance of the possible risks of GMO foods, and through this we can take a comprehensive view of dimensions such as school farming, local culture, environmental resources, biodiversity and care for life.
Note: This article was polished from two pieces: "Mayor Ko: Non-GMO School Lunches Are Exactly the Best Environmental Education" in Independent Review @ CommonWealth, and "Embodying School Environmental Education: Start with Non-GMO Lunches" in Thinking Taiwan.