The Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) yesterday urged the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) to establish a guideline for all organic products on the market to avoid products being held to different standards.
The commission made the call as a new rule came into effect yesterday that stipulates fines of up to NT$300,000 for agricultural and processed agricultural products labeled “organic” that fail to receive government certification.
However, non-edible products — including cotton products, cosmetics, bath gels and shampoos — can still claim organic status without Council of Agriculture (COA) certification.
In recent years, the word “organic” has become prevalent in the consumer market. A search on Yahoo’s online auction Web site produces about 8,700 organic goods for sale, and ruten.com provides Web-shoppers with more than 20,000 options — with products ranging from organic cotton and massage oils to makeup and dog food.
However, the government is unable to guarantee whether they are truly grown and produced organically.
Secretary-general Wu Chia-cheng (吳家誠) of the Consumers’ Foundation said that during production processes, many products are contaminated, and the government should warn the public against placing too much trust in self-proclaimed organic goods.
Association of Taiwan Organic Agriculture Promotion director Chen Shi-hsiung (陳世雄) said that because many “organic stores” sell a combination of organic and non-organic products, any store that claims to be organic on store signs should be required to obtain certification.
Although Agriculture and Food Agency Director-General Tsai Ching-chiang (蔡精強) said the agency’s jurisdiction ended with foods, the CPC said that other government agencies — such as the MOEA, Department of Health and the BSMI — should regulate non-food products because consumers tend to pay double or triple the price for goods that are labeled as being organic.
In response, the BSMI said the bureau has drafted regulations for organic foods, but enforcement was up to the COA.
The BSMI said no regulations currently apply to other organic products such as personal hygiene products, adding that if they were to be regulated, production process guidelines for organic goods would need to be established first.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching