2018 Global Anti-Monsanto campaign @ Taiwan

Share + 1 Tweet Email2018 Global Anti-Monsanto campaign @ Taiwan

Say No to GMO Global Anti-basic Reform campaign

The Housewives Union Environmental Protection Foundation and the Taiwan Alliance for the Promotion of non-basic Reform and other groups responded to the annual global anti-March Against Monsanto campaign at the Taipei Water Garden Organic Farmers' Market this morning, echoing the pace of the world's anti-basic reform, protesting the misdeeds of Monsanto, an American agricultural biotechnology company, in terms of biological plagiarism, food safety hazards, and environmental pollution. It is hoped that through this transnational action, the people of Taiwan will understand the situation and demands of the international anti-basic reform movement, and make people remain alert to the genetically modified foods that can be found everywhere in daily life. The issue of anti-basic reform has also attracted the common attention of legislators of both parties. Legislators Li Yanxiu and Chen Manli have come to express their support for non-governmental anti-fundamental reform. In the future, they will continue to supervise the government in the Legislative Yuan and maintain the direction of strict control of genetically modified food.

Monsanto of the United States is the largest GM seed enterprise in the world. With the matching use of pesticide herbicides and GM seeds, Monsanto collects seed royalties from farmers on the one hand and earns herbicides on the other, which not only causes irreparable damage to the environment, but also becomes the object of exploitation because of the loss of seed control. Despite the health risks of GM crops, Monsanto used money to lobby governments to relax GM labeling regulations, sparking widespread criticism. In May 2013, an American housewife launched the Anti-Monsanto March (March Against Monsanto), which received responses from 52 countries and 436 cities around the world.

The Housewives Union Environmental Protection Foundation, the living and consumption Cooperative of the Taiwan Housewives Union, the seed Research Office of National Taiwan University and the Green Front Association have formed the "Taiwan Alliance for the Promotion of non-basic Reform" since 2008, which has paid close attention to the issue of basic reform for a long time. Encourage people to choose and buy non-basic modified foods, support domestic miscellaneous grains, and continue to supervise the government's policy of not planting genetically modified crops, and strictly assess the risks of imported genetically modified foods. The implementation of the clear labeling and tracking of GM foods will also respond to the global anti-Monsanto campaign in May every year.

Kuo Hua-Jen, honorary professor of agronomy at National Taiwan University, believes that GM companies have caused damage to the environment around the world, endangering consumers' food safety and exploiting small farmers, and Taiwan is not immune from a large number of imports of foreign GM soybeans. Fortunately, in recent years, thanks to the efforts of non-GM soybeans made in China, imports have been gradually replaced by domestic non-GM soybeans, but it still needs the government and the private sector to more actively promote and implement the goal of non-GM reforms.

Legislator Chen Manli mentioned that Taiwan is still not open to the cultivation of genetically modified crops, and that people can try their best to eat local agricultural products and miscellaneous grains, support Taiwan's agriculture, and reduce import substitution, so that Taiwan can continue to maintain the country's non-basic agricultural areas in the future.

Legislator Li Yanxiu stressed that anti-reform and safeguarding food safety should work together regardless of blue and green, and although the United States continues to exert pressure on Taiwan in international trade, the government should still maintain strict checks in the future. including the marking and management of emerging genetic editing technology, and insisting on non-fundamental changes in campus lunches.

Li Xiuwei, director of the living and consumption Cooperative of the Taiwan Housewives' Union, said that although consumers will give priority to food safety, they should also be aware of the global environmental damage caused by the reform companies and the persecution of small farmers, as well as the adverse effects that enterprises may have on consumers after monopolization.

Huang Jialin, co-founder of the non-basic campaign for campus lunch, believes that the emerging technologies of the reform companies are emerging one after another, which not only have more and more benefits, but also tend to be monopolized, and what is more, they need the people to fight against them continuously in order to protect the environment and food safety of the next generation.

Tsai Jung-hung, an operator of Yongxing livestock farm, is currently working with the Housewives' Union Cooperative to start using some of the non-GM feed for breeding. he mentioned that almost all of Taiwan's feed is imported GM feed, which deserves the attention of consumers.

Zheng Yongqing, section chief of the Miscellaneous Cereals Special work Section of the Agriculture and Food Administration, also attended the event, saying that the concept of promoting the restoration of domestic miscellaneous grains by the private sector is consistent with the policies promoted by the government. Domestic miscellaneous grains currently account for only about 6% of all miscellaneous grain consumption. at present, the government continues to encourage the production side to grow domestic miscellaneous grains, and also actively mediates and promotes consumer side edible miscellaneous grains and their processed products, which can not only support Taiwan's agriculture but also achieve the goal of non-basic reform.

Huang Shu-de, Managing Director of the Housewives' Union Environmental Protection Foundation and convener of the non-basic Reform Alliance in Taiwan, shared the recent non-reform movement in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Anti-basic reform civil society groups have joined forces to voice, calling on governments in Asia and the world to pay attention to the risks hidden by emerging genetic modification technologies, and oppose the manipulation of science by reform companies, hiding various risks behind information and language that consumers do not understand. It hurts consumers' right to know.

Echoing the global anti-Monsanto campaign, civil society groups jointly put forward four major propositions this year:

Oppose the seed monopoly caused by mergers and acquisitions

Most of the genetically modified seeds come from six pesticide companies, namely Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, Daoli and BASF. The six major companies account for more than 90% of the global GM seeds, more than 70% of all seeds and about 70% of pesticides. In recent years, there has been a trend of restructuring among GM agricultural enterprises. Monsanto's proposed merger and acquisition of Syngenta failed in 2014, and Syngenta was later bought by Sinochem. Now Monsanto will be acquired by Bayer, but Bayer's own seed division may be merged into BASF. In September last year, Dao Li and DuPont merged to form a "Dao Li DuPont" company. The big six become the top four, which makes the monopoly of seeds and pesticides more serious, and also poses a greater threat to the livelihood of farmers and the environment and the health of consumers. Opposing the monopoly of seeds caused by mergers and acquisitions of reformed enterprises has been the core demand of the global anti-Monsanto movement.

Gene editing products should be regarded as modified products and marked in accordance with the law.

The first generation of GM foods is mainly based on the cloning of foreign genes, which is characterized by the production of unprecedented proteins, thus causing potential health threats, especially allergies. Based on the early warning principle, except for a few countries such as the United States and Canada, about 70 countries have laws and regulations that allow consumers to decide whether to buy or not. Recently, new gene editing methods directly deal with crop genes. GM companies believe that such operations will not produce foreign proteins, gene editing is quite accurate, and no unexpected situation will happen. therefore, countries are strongly urged not to regard genetically edited varieties as genetically modified varieties. This has led to the recent announcement by the United States government, a major reform country, that genetic editing is not genetic modification. However, there is a lot of evidence that even genetic editing can still make unexpected changes, so it should still be regarded as a genetically modified product, which needs to be strictly reviewed and marked after approval. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration of China has openly solicited research plans for the safety evaluation and management norms of "emerging biotechnology-derived foods" such as gene editing. This is a very responsible practice, and we praise it, and we also hope that the FDA can work out a rigorous examination of health risks in the light of the double strands of RNA generated by the RNA manipulation technology and the unexpected changes caused by genetic editing, so as to ensure the health of the people.

Anti-US government interferes with non-basic laws and regulations on campus lunch in Taiwan

After passing the system of examination, tracking and labeling for the listing of GM foods in 2014, China amended the School Health Law in 2015, requiring school nutritious lunches and welfare societies at all levels to completely ban the use of GM foods and primary processed products. the reason is that GM foods are potentially risky, while school children are in the stage of development and belong to higher-risk ethnic groups, so they need to be more careful. After the passage of the law, the United States accuses ROC legislation to remove GM foods as a serious trade barrier through trade negotiations every year, on the grounds that there is no evidence to show that GM foods pose health risks. However, over the years, scientific reports have pointed out that pesticides used in GM crops or planting GM crops may have short-term or long-term health concerns about animals, including humans. Last year, it was also reported that US officials had simply ignored more than 750 papers pointing out the risks of GM crops. We strongly oppose that the United States regards the labelling of China's genetically modified products and the non-fundamental laws and regulations on campus food as obstacles to trade, not only because such accusations are not based on science, but also because China has never opposed the import of American soybeans and corn agricultural products. we just want to choose better American soybeans and corn products, from 120000 metric tons of feed-grade soybeans to higher-quality food-grade soybeans.

To promote grain autonomy, priority should be given to the restoration of miscellaneous grains in Taiwan.

Affected by the low price of imported miscellaneous grains, the cultivated area of miscellaneous grains in China has dropped from 450000 hectares in the 1960s to 70,000 hectares now, which not only greatly affects the rural economy, but also because farmers can no longer grow miscellaneous grains and switch to vegetables and fruit trees. as a result, the problem of overproduction occurs almost every year, causing considerable trouble in agricultural policy. In view of the serious problem of fallow land, the Agriculture and Food Department has launched a plan to adjust the farming system to revitalize agricultural land, encouraging farmland to plant imported alternative miscellaneous grain crops with high domestic import demand, and so on, among which, for the restoration of corn and soybeans, what we are looking for is domestic non-basic products. We deeply agree with this policy that the resumption of farming can not only make good use of agricultural land, but also promote surrounding jobs, create job opportunities and improve rural industries. We call on the government to maintain the status quo of the country's non-GM agricultural areas and create a more favorable agricultural foundation.

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