A group of Internet users yesterday staged a demonstration outside the Taipei Railway Station to protest the government’s decision to lift the ban on imports of US bone-in beef and bovine organs.
Despite a legislative resolution adopted in January 2006 stipulating the government must consult with and gain approval from the legislature before lifting the ban, the government announced last month that it had already signed an agreement with the US lifting the ban after years of negotiation.
The announcement created uproar around the country and drew strong opposition from local government heads, as well as legislators of both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party.
Following a candle-lit demonstration in Hsinchu organized by Internet users last Saturday to protest the policy and to demand the renegotiation of the beef agreement with the US, Internet users in Taipei also staged a demonstration yesterday.
“President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] always says that he represents the voice of all 23 million Taiwanese, but that’s just bullshit,” a woman surnamed Chang (張) who brought her daughter to the protest said. “The government negotiated with the US on the beef deal for years, but the public only found out about it after the agreement was signed.”
Another protester surnamed Chen (陳) said that Ma and officials at both the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan should eat bone-in beef and bovine organs from the US every day, since they have told people it is safe.
“A handful of officials have already said that they wouldn’t eat it — so why should the public?” he said.
Chang condemned Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) for being irresponsible when he said the public should serve as the last checkpoint for US beef and make up their own minds as to whether they want to eat it.
“Well, if they don’t lift the ban, the people don’t have to take that risk,” she said. “Why don’t we just legalize drugs and guns and turn off all traffic lights — just leave it to the public to decide?”
Chu Cheng-chi (朱政麒), a student at National Taiwan University’s Department of Sociology who became well-known after uploading a video of himself eating cow excrement in protest of the lifting of the ban, also joined the protest.
“No matter how small it is, there is still a chance that mad cow disease could enter Taiwan in the more hazardous parts of US beef and once it comes, it stays for generations,” Chu said. “If Taiwan becomes an affected area, it would be hard to root out the disease.”
In related news, Lin Ja-liang (林杰樑), a clinical toxicology specialist at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, yesterday advised people not to nibble the bones when consuming US bone-in beef.
Those who do so are four times more likely to become ill than those who do not, he said.
Lin also suggested that the government separate the waste generated from the consumption of US beef and incinerate it so that it would not contaminate other food waste.
While the government has banned farmers from feeding their cattle bone meal imported from infected areas, Lin said it should also ban products containing substances made from beef in the infected areas, including collagen, bone dust used in medical surgery and vaccines.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
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