The Food and Agriculture Education Act (食農教育法) promulgated on May 4 comes at an opportune time, as it involves the implementation of net-zero emissions and sustainable development goals.
According to the National Development Council’s Taiwan 2050 Net Zero Emissions Pathway and Strategic Overview, the production of low-carbon and healthy foods would require incentives for more farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture. A report published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also recommends the promotion of ecological farming.
The regulations echo the agro-ecological initiatives of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, involving a transition from the current practices of industrialized farming and globalized food distribution models to a local food and farming system through ecological organic agriculture by farmers for local consumption.
The food and agriculture system needs to be transformed, because the consequences of the existing system — soil degradation, environmental pollution, ecological collapse and damage to health — has long been evident, as is the threat of extreme weather in the near future. Ecological and regenerative organic farming will not only help reduce emissions and store carbon, but can also promote soil health and improve climate resilience in agriculture, which is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
However, in Taiwan and on average worldwide, certified land for organic production remains under 2 percent of the total production area: At this rate, transformation will come too late to contribute to net-zero emissions by 2050.
The crux of the problem lies in the overcomplicated existing system, in which people can only follow the conventional rules, and changes or innovations can only happen incrementally, making a paradigm shift impossible.
This is because the conventional thinking over the years has dealt with issues by compartmentalizing them — for example, by highlighting the convenience and rapid action of pesticides and fertilizers, but downplaying the health hazards and damage they do to the land, or determining the value of agriculture solely by market prices, making it difficult for small farmers to compete, which leads to the decline of rural communities.
The untold truth is that the conventional system of agriculture comes at a huge social cost, while consumers have become addicted to low food prices.
The short-term electoral system drives policies to favor the existing system, and the indicators set out in the agricultural budget fail to incorporate important issues such as the overall environment, health and well-being.
The transformation of the food and agriculture system requires cooperation between the government and the private sector to overcome difficulties, mainstream ecological agriculture and change the overall view of food in education and research.
New indicators for sustainable food and agriculture systems must also be established, while transferring budgets to ecologically regenerative organic agriculture. In addition to expanding public procurement, it is necessary to focus on building short-distance supply chain infrastructure and new retail models to promote connections between production and consumption.
The Food and Agriculture Education Act should focus on the transformation of the food and agriculture system, which can be achieved only by joint efforts among industry, government, academia and consumers. A consensus built through dialogue is the cornerstone of achieving comprehensive transformation and the net-zero goal.
Warren Kuo is an emeritus professor in National Taiwan University’s Department of Agronomy.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
When 17,000 troops from the US, the Philippines, Australia, Japan, Canada, France and New Zealand spread across the Philippine archipelago for the Balikatan military exercise, running from tomorrow through May 8, the official language would be about interoperability, readiness and regional peace. However, the strategic subtext is becoming harder to ignore: The exercises are increasingly about the military geography around Taiwan. Balikatan has always carried political weight. This year, however, the exercise looks different in ways that matter not only to Manila and Washington, but also to Taipei. What began in 2023 as a shift toward a more serious deterrence posture
Reports about Elon Musk planning his own semiconductor fab have sparked anxiety, with some warning that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) could lose key customers to vertical integration. A closer reading suggests a more measured conclusion: Musk is advancing a strategic vision of in-house chip manufacturing, but remains far from replacing the existing foundry ecosystem. For TSMC, the short-term impact is limited; the medium-term challenge lies in supply diversification and pricing pressure, only in the long term could it evolve into a structural threat. The clearest signal is Musk’s announcement that Tesla and SpaceX plan to develop a fab project dubbed “Terafab”
China’s AI ecosystem has one defining difference from Silicon Valley: It is embrace of open source. While the US’ biggest companies race to build ever more powerful systems and insist only they can control them, Chinese labs have been giving the technology away for free. Open source — making a model available for anyone to use, download and build on — once seemed a niche, nerdy topic that no one besides developers cared about. However, when a new technology is driving trillions of dollars of investments and leading to immense concentrations of power, it offered an antidote. That is part of
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
RSS