Monsanto faces global opposition, and Taiwan, China is no exception

On May 25 of this year, March Against Monsanto protests were held around the world, with participants in 52 countries and 436 cities, and an estimated more than two million people taking to the streets.

Monsanto is the world’s largest genetically modified seed company (Note 1). Tami Monroe Canal, who launched this demonstration on Facebook, said her original intention was for her two daughters: "I feel that Monsanto is threatening the health, fertility and lifespan of their generation, and I cannot sit by and do nothing."

Taiwan, China was not absent from this wave of protest either; it was initiated by FIST N’ PAW, an art shop in Taichung. One of the organizers, Chris Duxbury, a student in the Department of Information Engineering at Feng Chia University, said bluntly: "Compared with countries around the world, Taiwan, China may be the country least alert to genetically modified crops."

Duxbury observed that people in other countries have many doubts about genetically modified foods, and governments also enact laws to strictly regulate them. In contrast, Taiwanese people consume soy milk and tofu every day, and more than 90 percent of the raw soybeans are genetically modified, yet the public is almost completely unaware of it, and the government has not reminded citizens of the potential risks of genetically modified foods.

Note 1: To learn more about the company Monsanto, see the documentary "The World according to Monsanto":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9NZKUJ92Zs

Note 2: List of genetically modified foods that have passed review by the Department of Health:

http://consumer.fda.gov.tw/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeID=506&pid=6500

Note 3: Documentary "The Killing Fields": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzWgadTrA28