More than 250 academics have signed a petition calling for the termination of an incinerator project in Nantou County’s Mingjian Township (名間), the fourth scoping meeting of which is scheduled to be held on Monday and Tuesday.
The county government’s push to set up an incinerator in the tea-rich township has been raising wide backlash for months.
Speaking on behalf of more than 250 domestic and international academics, Soochow University sociology associate professor Sana Ho (何撒娜) yesterday told a news conference that the project poses a threat to the nation’s food security amid increasing geopolitical tensions.
Photo: CNA
Tea and hand-shaken drinks are a significant cultural capital of Taiwan and symbolize Taiwanese national identity internationally, she said, calling for protection of the tea industry, which is worth more than NT$10 billion (US$317.3 million) per year.
“We attended meetings multiple times and saw that the county government disregarded the law at the expense of procedural justice and people’s environmental rights,” Ho said, urging the county government not to undermine the bedrock of agriculture.
Former Mingdao University president and organic farming expert Eddie Chen (陳世雄) said advanced industrial countries such as Japan and Germany value farmland and uphold environmental resilience.
“Zero alternative” is a core principle guiding the site selection process of large infrastructure projects in Germany, he said.
The county government is making a big mistake, as it has many alternatives to the township’s special agricultural zone, Chen said.
More than 73 percent of the county’s GDP, including 21 percent in agriculture and 52 percent in tourism, are related to land and environment, he said.
The incinerator would cause irreparable damage to local agriculture and tourism, he added.
Huang Jan-yen (黃貞燕), director of the Graduate Institute of Museum Studies at the Taipei National University of the Arts, said the township’s tea industry is a cultural heritage of Taiwan.
Tea cultivation sites in Asia have become a category of the globally important agricultural heritage systems (GIAHS) recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, she said.
Three tea production regions in China, one in Japan and one in South Korea have been recognized as tea GIAHS sites, she added.
Taiwan’s tea production areas, such as the township, have the potential to earn such a recognition, Huang said, adding that Mingjian Puzhong Tea has since 2019 been listed by the county government as an intangible cultural heritage.
The township’s tea industry is not one that could thrive as well if it is relocated, as it is intertwined with the land, ecosystems and local communities, she added.
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