More than 1,000 protesters are expected to take to the streets of Taipei on Sunday to condemn the government for “fooling” the public over its food safety policy and to urge consumers to stand up for food safety, the National Food Safety Alliance said yesterday.
“We chose to march on April Fools’ Day because what the government has promised us has proven to be a lie,” said Lu Mei-luan (呂美鸞), secretary-general of the Homemakers United Foundation, one of the dozens of civic groups across the nation that gathered to form the National Food Safety Alliance.
The alliance has demanded a ban on meat containing lean meat additives, a refusal to accept the government’s policy of conditional imports of beef with residues of ractopamine and the full disclosure of the government’s food safety policies. It has also urged the government to allow non-governmental organizations to voice their concerns at inter-ministerial meetings on the issue to make food safety policy more transparent.
Lu said the government has been fooling the public by saying that there is no planned schedule for allowing imports of US beef containing ractopamine and claiming to be “a Cabinet which allows the public to put their mind at rest.”
“A dark era of food safety is coming,” representatives from the alliance told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳), an official at the Life Conservationists Association, asked all participants to wear black shirts and dark-colored pants to the march, to walk silently without any flags or signs, and to hold electric candles in their hands to symbolize a dark era of food safety and the light of hope.
“We have to stand up to invite more people to care about food safety,” Lu said, “We have to stand up for the right to be healthy and express our expectations for safe meals for us and for our children.”
The protest march will begin at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall’s Liberty Square at 5pm and finish on Ketagalan Boulevard at about 6:30pm.
The alliance estimates that more than 1,000 people will take part in the rally.
If the government does not respond to the public’s expectations, the alliance will consider initiating another protest rally on May 20, the day of the president’s inauguration, Lu added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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