The government's policy on producing crops for energy will refocus on crops used for ethanol gasoline after efforts to grow crops for biodiesel over the past two years proved inefficient, a senior Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) official said yesterday.
AFA Deputy Director Yu Sheng-feng (游勝鋒) said that as part of the efforts to promote the use of biomass energy, the agency planted biodiesel crops, including soybeans and sunflowers, on 1,721 hectares of fallow land in Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties last year.
EXPANSION
This year the cultivation of such crops was expanded to 24 counties and townships nationwide, including Taoyuan and Taipei counties, on a total of 3,334 hectares of fallow.
However, harvests were far less than expected because of inclement weather and pests, Yu said, adding that the harvests were only sufficient to fuel a fleet of vehicles used in government biomass energy programs such as the "green government vehicle" program launched in September.
SWEET POTATOES
Because of this, Yu said, efforts will turn to plants such as sweet potatoes, which are one of the main crops used in the production of bio-ethanol.
Faced with an international energy crisis as crude oil prices skyrocket, the government is betting on biofuel crops to alleviate the problem within Taiwan, the AFA said.
NOBEL LAUREATE
Meanwhile, former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (
At a conference on national parks and forests hosted by the Construction and Planning Agency in Taipei earlier yesterday, Lee said that the country is inching forward at a snail's pace in its efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
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A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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