Gutter Oil Press Conference: Witnessing a Derelict Government Passing the Buck
One Bucket of Swill Oil: Seeing a Derelict Government Pass the Buck
[Post-Press-Conference News Release, 2014.09.12]
Submitted by: Homemakers United Foundation
The swill oil and inferior oil scandal, which has kept expanding in recent days, has once again plunged the public into a state of food-safety panic. These recycled oils, leather oils, industrial oils, swill oils and inferior oils unfit for human consumption, and even the carcass oil of diseased dead poultry, keep invading our food, and even schoolchildren's nutritious lunches! In response, the Homemakers United Foundation called on more than 10 organizations to hold a press conference in front of the Executive Yuan on September 12 under the title "One Bucket of Swill Oil: Seeing a Derelict Government Pass the Buck," accusing the various government ministries of constantly shirking responsibility in this incident, with the people's food safety kicked back and forth like a football!
At the press conference site, a street-theater action piece titled "Waste Oil Exposed, Food Safety Broken" was used to highlight how the Food and Drug Administration, the Council of Agriculture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Environmental Protection Administration have kept deploying different talking points in this incident in an attempt to evade responsibility, causing swill oil to keep flowing through different food ingredients. Yet the Executive Yuan, as the highest governing authority, has kept indulging its subordinate departments to each go their own way, and when problems arise it dares not step forward to face them and coordinate all ministries to actively solve them.
In the end, the Executive Yuan sent Tsai Meng-lun, Counselor of the Internal Affairs, Health and Labor Office, to receive our petition—the swill oil. We hope Premier Jiang should "reflect on the oil and examine his faults," and earnestly take responsibility for the people's food safety. In response, the Executive Yuan only stated that the government had already set up an inter-ministerial food-safety meeting, but the meeting's contents and the timetable for solving the problem have so far still not been made public, nor did it promise to meet our demand for citizen participation in oversight.
Here, we strongly demand that the Executive Yuan and all government ministries respond as soon as possible to the following demands:
1. The Executive Yuan should coordinate and immediately convene an inter-ministerial food-safety meeting to promptly improve the problem of insufficient source control
2. Break the black-box monopoly on food-safety risks and accelerate the establishment of a citizen-participation oversight mechanism
3. Food safety must start from the root and accelerate the enactment of a basic law on dietary education
Attending organizations:
Homemakers United Foundation, Homemakers United Cooperative, National Alliance of Parents' Associations, Taiwan Support Association for Yusho Victims, Awakening Foundation, National Association for the Promotion of Community Colleges, Citizen Congress Watch, Green Party Taiwan, Yilan Humanities Foundation, Referendum to Protect Taiwan Alliance, Li Jiang Que Taiwan Language and Culture Foundation, Green Party, the office of DPP legislator Tien Chiu-chin, the office of DPP legislator Yu Mei-nu
Co-supporting organizations:
Citizens of the Earth Foundation, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Child Welfare League Foundation, Taiwan Watch Institute, John Tung Foundation, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Taiwan Left Renewal, Professor Wu Kun-yu of the Department of Public Health and the Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene at National Taiwan University, the office of DPP legislator Lin Shu-fen
Press contacts: Homemakers United Foundation, Secretary-General Lai Hsiao-fen 0937-800-597
Homemakers United Foundation, Secretary Shen Pao-li 2368-6211