The Ten-Year Journey of the School Lunch Movement (Part 2)
Foreword: The author wrote this article mainly based on personal experience and observation from participation, supplemented by relevant literature and materials, presenting one facet of the school lunch movement in Taiwan, China, in the hope of casting a brick to attract jade, so that more experts may share the full picture of the movement, and providing a reference of past lessons for the surging local actions in Taiwan, China today. From 2005 to 2015, over ten years, according to the development of events, it can be roughly divided into four major periods: the school lunch parent empowerment movement, the budding of food and agriculture education and local ingredient supply plans, the period when competent authorities implemented school lunch policies, and the non-GMO school lunch and second wave of parent empowerment actions. (Text: Chen Ru-wei)
Third Period: The Period When Competent Authorities Implemented School Lunch Policies(2012~2014.9)
In 2012, the Taichung Branch of the Homemakers United Foundation demanded that the Taichung City Government establish a "School Lunch Health Promotion Committee"[1], composed of operational units, consumer protection officials, NGO representatives, current lunch staff, parent representatives, and scholars and experts, holding two meetings a year. In 2014, on this basis, two "Campus Lunch Ingredient Safety Forums" were held, inviting competent authorities, dietitians, group meal providers, and parents to discuss together how to improve school lunch problems.
In the same year, Tainan City was the first to announce the "Tainan City School Lunch Autonomous Ordinance"[2], covering the aspects of "food safety," "low-carbon diet," "resource recycling and local ingredient production and marketing," and "dining etiquette"; in 2013, Tainan City also launched the first official version of the "Food Education Teaching Materials for Elementary and Junior High Schools"[3], formally incorporating food education as the sixth education.
In addition, in New Taipei City, it was the first in the country to launch a policy of one serving of organic vegetables per week for school lunches. In 2012, it was piloted in more than 50 schools, and in 2013 it was extended to the whole city[4], and this move also prompted Taoyuan County to follow suit[5]. After the start of the school term in February 2014, the Taoyuan County Government subsidized 167 schools to supply two servings of organic vegetables per week.
In March 2013, the Homemakers United Foundation conducted a survey on the disclosure of lunch menus on the websites of elementary schools in Taipei City and New Taipei City. The results showed[6] that the proportion meeting the four transparency requirements of "link on the homepage," "menu published," "ingredients listed," and "photos posted" was 18.3% for New Taipei City, while Taipei City was even lower at 7.2%. In less than half a year, Taipei City took the lead in launching the "Taipei City Food Ingredient Traceability Platform"[7]. Another year later, in September 2104, the Ministry of Education piloted a food ingredient traceability system in ten counties and cities, and in February 2015 the "Campus Food Ingredient Traceability Platform"[8] went fully online.
In May 2014, Yilan County launched the "Dietary Health Rights Draft Ordinance"[9], emphasizing that eating with peace of mind is a basic right of the people, covering matters such as environmentally friendly agriculture, agricultural product traceability, local production and local consumption, raising the food self-sufficiency rate, passing on dietary culture, food and agriculture education, food safety counseling and management, environmental education, and monitoring of the food manufacturing environment.
Taipei City Legislator Yao Wen-chih focused on legislation for dietary education. In December 2012, the first "Dietary Education Legislation Public Hearing" was held to collect opinions from all sectors, but unfortunately no consensus was reached at the time. In January 2015, the "Food and Agriculture Education Act Draft" was proposed again, and afterward, together with Legislator Tian Chiu-chin and the Food and Agriculture Education Legislation Promotion Alliance, central relevant ministries and local governments were invited to exchange and discuss the current status and policies of food and agriculture education.
During this period, because the Executive Yuan had just passed the "Environmental Education Act," schools and public departments across the country successively invested in promoting environmental education courses and activities. More proactive local governments took this opportunity to formulate relevant dietary and lunch autonomous ordinances, and the school lunch movement expanded upward from local civil action to the level of government unit policies. In a certain sense, it also helped open up the space for exerting effort in the next stage of the non-GMO school lunch action.
Fourth Period: Non-GMO School Lunch and the Second Wave of Parent Empowerment Actions(2014.10~2015.3.10)
In September 2014, Huang Chia-lin, a volunteer of the Taiwan Non-GMO Promotion Alliance, proposed and secured passage of a motion to "require candidates in the nine-in-one local public office elections to sign a commitment letter to remove GMO ingredients from school lunches," but later, due to the alliance's administrative considerations, Huang Chia-lin was entrusted to establish an independently operating action team and serve as convener. On September 29, the "School Lunch Go Non-GMO" Facebook fan page[10] was set up, connecting willing volunteers across regions through the internet, and putting forward the demand that "after being elected, [candidates] will allocate budgets and administrative resources, or indeed supervise the relevant administrative units, to promote the inclusion of non-GMO soybean products as ingredients in elementary and junior high schools as a regulation, providing children with safe, risk-free non-GMO food." At the same time, a group of partners in Hsinchu also launched the Hsinchu County and City School Lunch Action[11], proposing three goals: "at least one friendly-farming meal per week in school lunches," "use of non-GMO foods," and "implementation of environmental education and food education."
On October 2, the press conference "Save Our Own Children: School Lunch Go Non-GMO" was held, officially announcing the statement and commitment letter[12], and on that day Chang Ming-li, a Green Party candidate for Keelung City Councilor, became the first candidate nationwide to sign. On November 19, the press conference "School Lunch Go Non-GMO: Don't Let Parents Worry Again" was held, publishing the list of candidates who had signed the commitment. As of the voting day on November 29, a total of 166 candidates had signed within 60 days.
On November 30, the article "After Today, School Lunches Will Begin to Be Different" was published on the NewsMarket[13], publishing the list of 81 elected candidates who had signed the commitment letter, including heads of 12 counties and cities, and calling on all voters to jointly supervise whether they fulfilled their commitments after taking office, receiving more than 30,000 views. And the NewsMarket became the first action information column for the School Lunch Go Non-GMO action[14]. Later, it further cooperated with the ETtoday forum on a special feature[15], established the "GMO FILE" blog[16], and issued a monthly e-newsletter, hoping to expand its influence through diverse channels.
On December 10, the "Non-GMO School Lunch - A Christmas Gift for Children" activity was launched, calling on the 10 county and city mayors who had not yet signed the commitment to jointly realize the vision of campus food safety. On the same day, Yunlin County Magistrate Li Chin-yung's commitment letter was immediately received, and afterward positive responses were successively obtained from Yilan County Magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu, Penghu County Magistrate Chen Kuang-fu, Chiayi County Magistrate Chang Hua-kuan, Lienchiang County Magistrate Liu Tseng-ying, and Kinmen County Magistrate Chen Fu-hai. Currently, a total of nineteen county and city mayors have responded, clearly showing that prioritizing non-GMO ingredients has become a consensus of the whole people.
On March 10, 2015, the Hsinchu County and City School Lunch Action team held the first "Hsinchu County School Lunch Parent Empowerment Lecture"[17], inviting the Go Non-GMO action team to share the course of the school lunch movement, experience and skills in lunch monitoring, and awareness of the risks of GMO foods, opening the first step of deep local cultivation of school lunches. Ten years later, the second wave of parent empowerment actions was thus launched. Whether the fourth period, carried out through the power of the internet and social media, can continue to exert supervisory power after the election fervor has passed and connect groups across regions to sustain local school lunch issues is still very much worth continued attention.
[1] Taichung City School Lunch Health Promotion Committee. http://210.69.115.31/GLRSout/NewsContent.aspx?id=3033
[2] Tainan City School Lunch Autonomous Ordinance. http://ppt.cc/3~M4
[3] Tainan City Elementary and Junior High School Food Education Teaching Materials Zone. http://163.26.1.53/content/ActivityDetail.aspx?AID=34
[4] New Taipei City Agriculture Department. https://wedid.ntpc.gov.tw/Site/PolicyDetails/736
[5] Nutrition lunch with organic vegetable meals 2 days a week. http://163.30.192.132/list_detail.asp?e_paperid=4607
[6] The disappearing lunch menus of Taipei and New Taipei schoolchildren? http://www.huf.org.tw/essay/content/1700
[7] Taipei City Food Ingredient Traceability Platform. http://foodtracer.taipei.gov.tw/
[8] Campus Food Ingredient Traceability Platform. http://lunch.twfoodtrace.org.tw/cateringservice/web/main/
[9] Eating with peace of mind is a basic human right: Yilan County first creates a dietary health autonomous ordinance. http://e-info.org.tw/taxonomy/term/42536
[10] School Lunch Go Non-GMO. https://www.facebook.com/nogmolunch
[11] Hsinchu County and City School Lunch Action. https://www.facebook.com/HsinchuLunch
[12] Non-GMO School Lunch Commitment Letter. http://ppt.cc/sGwZ
[13] After today, school lunches will begin to be different. https://www.newsmarket.com.tw/blog/61516/
[14] NewsMarket column. https://www.newsmarket.com.tw/blog/author/nogmolunch/
[15] ETtoday forum special feature. http://www.ettoday.net/topic/topic-131.htm
[16] GMO FILE. https://nogmolunch.wordpress.com/
[17] Hsinchu County and City School Lunch Parent Empowerment Lecture. http://ppt.cc/1QvR