With the arrival of Taitung’s roselle flower harvest season, the market purchase price for fresh de-seeded calyxes is NT$60 per jin, with dried calyxes also fetching a good price, so farmers have been looking forward to harvesting their crop. However, there have recently been frequent reports of flower-picking thieves in the greater Jhihben area. These “head-chopping” thieves have been helping themselves to the fruits of the farmers’ hard work. Farmers who have suffered thefts complain that the robbers have no conscience, and they hope the police can reinforce their “harvest protection project” and bring the thieves to justice as soon as possible.
“This is outrageous. Even if you put up a warning sign, it still won’t scare the thieves out of running amok,” said a farmer surnamed Lin, who grows chrysanthemums as well as roselles. With both crops becoming ready for harvest at the same time, he went out first thing in the morning on Nov. 19 to inspect his orchard and wait for his hired hands to come and harvest the flowers, only to find that nearly a third of his roselles, which he had intentionally grown without weeding so that they could grow naturally in a toxin-free organic environment, had gone missing. He could not help seething with anger after thieves pinched his crop under cover of dark. Lin said he had put up a sign to deter thieves a few days previously after finding that four roselle shrubs growing near the country road had been picked bare by robbers, but it had not done any good, and this time they had been even more brazen.
A farmer surnamed Chen said that farmers had been looking forward to harvesting their crops, selling them and banking the money, but thefts had been reported all over the greater Jhihben area, including Jhihben, Jianhe and nearby places. It was really a shame, he said. Despite launching a “harvest protection project,” the police have still not managed to deter opportunists from snatching the fruits of other people’s labor, so Chen hopes that there can be more frequent police patrols to protect the results of the farmers’ hard work.
Photo: Chen Hsien-i, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者陳賢義
The police remind traders such as wholesalers, retailers, production and marketing groups and roadside vendors not to buy farm products from unknown sources or those whose price clearly does not match the going rate. They will send officers out to patrol outlying areas, and they urge the public to watch out for strangers on the farm. Anyone who spots anything suspicious should report it, so that the police and public can act together to prevent theft.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
台東洛神花進入採收期,市場鮮萼去籽收購價一斤六十元,烘焙乾萼行情也看俏,農民歡喜等待收成,但大知本地區近日卻頻傳採花賊,斷頭盜取農民心血,受害農民痛斥沒天良,盼警方續強化「護果專案」,儘快將宵小繩之於法。
「太過分了,立牌警告仍無法赫阻宵小橫行!」同時栽種杭菊和洛神花的林姓農民,由於兩農作同時進入採收期,十一月十九日清早就到農園巡視,等待僱工前來收成。未料刻意不除草、任其在無毒有機環境下自然生長的洛神花近三分之一不翼而飛,遭宵小摸黑斷頭,忍不住怒火中燒。林農說,日前就發現靠近農徑邊的四株洛神被盜採,事後立牌赫阻卻毫無作用,行徑更囂張。
陳姓農婦則說農友都歡喜等待收成,販賣,進帳,但大知本地區,包括知本及建和等地都傳出竊案,真的太可惡了。警方啟動護果專案,仍遏止不了投機份子的不勞而獲,望能再提高見警率,守護農民血汗。
警方提醒盤商、產銷班及路邊攤販等相關業者,切勿收購來路不明或價格與時價明顯不符之農作物,並將動員前往較偏遠地區巡視,呼籲民眾注意農園是否有陌生人出沒,發現可疑立即報案,聯手防竊。
(自由時報記者陳賢義)
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A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
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