Genetically edited foods might pose unpredictable health risks and should be regulated as genetically modified products, advocates and lawmakers said yesterday, demanding that the government be more strict about such products.
At a news conference in Taipei, the Homemakers United Foundation demanded that the Food and Drug Administration propose regulations for genetically edited foods, saying they should be regarded as genetically modified organisms (GMO).
It also called on the US government not to regard the nation’s regulations on GMO foods and their exclusion from school lunches as trade barriers.
Since the global campaign “March Against Monsanto” targeting GMO products of US-based agrochemical corporation Monsanto was launched in the US in May 2013, local opponents of GMOs have held events to echo the campaign in May every year, National Taiwan University agronomy professor Warren Kuo (郭華仁) said.
People should support non-GMO foods and collectively make sure the nation produces crops that are not genetically modified, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) called on lawmakers to work together to include genetically edited products in the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), which stipulates that product labels should reveal any GMO ingredients.
While domestically produced soybeans are more expensive, the Council of Agriculture (COA) is encouraging rice farmers to grow other grains by providing subsidies, COA Agriculture and Food Agency section head Cheng Yung-ching (鄭永青) said.
The agency is to promote organic soy milk at local schools, possibly starting with milk made of black beans, because they are cheaper, she said.
As genome editing is a relatively new domain, the department is still collecting information about it, COA Department of Science and Technology Deputy Director-General Kuo Kun-feng said separately.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on March 28 said that it has no plans to regulate plants bred through genome editing techniques if the result could have been achieved through traditional breeding and “as long as [the genomes] are not from plant pests or developed using plant pests.”
Kuo said that council officials did not broach the issue of genome editing during their annual conference with USDA officials last month.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS