From 1990 to 1995, Taiwan's average annual pesticide use was 37,000 tons, costing NT$4.1 billion, ranking highest in Asia and known as the "Kingdom of Pesticides."

From 1990 to 1995, Taiwan's average annual pesticide use was 37,000 tons, costing NT$4.1 billion, ranking first in Asia and known as the "Kingdom of Pesticides."

An average of 2 kilograms per person per year

So do you know the average amount of pesticides per person per year in the Mainland?

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2018 - 2.59 kg

Nowadays, organic food and organic farms have become a common practice in Taiwan. Taiwanese people are now using the same efforts to develop the economy in the past to develop organic agriculture. When you are drinking a cup of organic herb tea at an organic farm in Taiwan, it is hard to imagine that Taiwan was still known as the "Kingdom of Pesticides" back then.

Eating organic food, growing your own vegetables, and traveling to organic farms have become a fashionable lifestyle in Taiwan. When they ate chickens with unknown antibiotics, cows with mad cow disease, pigs with foot-and-mouth disease, and vegetables sprinkled with unknown amounts of pesticides, Taiwanese people took action long ago. Those who had some spare money and ideas would use the precious land. People are starting to open their own farms in the city; if they don’t have space or the means, they just grow boxes of hydroponic vegetables on their balconies. People are talking about not only the happy farms in the virtual world, but also their own real “organic farms”.

Grandma Sunshine’s Experimental Farm

The cold wind in Taiwan in January was biting, but Zhou Meihui and her husband Dai Dongxiong were busy in the fields. The husband and wife team who were busy farming in the fields wearing rain boots, one was a practitioner A professor who teaches design at a university, the other is a justice of the Judicial Yuan and an authoritative professor of Taiwanese civil law. But now the husband and wife team, who are nearly 70 years old, go to the fields to grow vegetables themselves and promote organic farming that turns food waste into gold. Zhou Meihui, who has lived in Germany for more than ten years, was influenced by German scientist Rudolf Steiner (who proposed the concept of Biodynamic Farming in 1924 and was a pioneer of modern organic agriculture) to promote organic farming in Taiwan. "If you don't do it today, you will regret it tomorrow!" Zhou Meihui said.

"I feel that I can't be 100% confident just buying ingredients from organic stores, so I decided to make it myself!" More than ten years ago, she began to promote growing her own vegetables in Taiwan. She transformed her villa in Sanzhi into The renewable energy demonstration house also opened an experimental farm in Zhongli. When the garbage war broke out in Zhongli more than ten years ago, Zhou Meihui and her friend Zhuang Yulong jointly promoted the method of turning food waste into gold.

The experimental farm is located near the Nanfang Manor Hotel in Zhongli. The land was provided by Zhou Meihui’s students. Under the technical guidance of Zhuang Yulong, the scale of the experimental farm gradually took shape. A wind power generation tower was specially built next to the farm. The entire farm The electricity is completely supplied by this wind tower, and the water in the ecological pool is enough to irrigate crops in the entire region. “To eat healthily, there must be no pesticides. In addition to destroying the pH of the soil, pesticides can also induce carcinogenic growth factors in the human body! " Zhou Meihui emphasized that the fertilizer in the experimental farm is entirely composed of organic compost made from kitchen waste. Zhuang Yulong pointed to the piles of black soil next to the farm, with bursts of heat wafting from a distance. They were collected from The food waste is fermented for several months to form "golden compost".

Zhou Meihui’s “compost technical guide” Zhuang Yulong is the chairman of the Taiwan Farm Management Association. He has won the Top Ten Outstanding Agricultural Youth Award in Taiwan. He is very knowledgeable about Taiwan’s agricultural development over the past decades and how to grow good vegetables. Have a brush! "My secret is composting!" Zhuang Yulong said, "We once went to Fuji Fishing Port in Taipei to get people's rotten catches to make compost, and the vegetables we grew were particularly plump!" There is a lot to learn about composting: The catches have the highest protein , the content of dead leaves is low. At the same time, the compost temperature must be sufficient to allow the organic matter to ferment, and the insect eggs inside must be removed to prevent future fertilization from affecting the growth of fruits and vegetables.During the fermentation process, it must be controlled so that no odor is produced in order to be a good compost. As for animal excrement, there are also differences in degree. For example, cow manure has high water content and low organic matter and nutrient content. The compost is not as nutritious as pig manure...

In Taiwan, there are still many people like Zhuang Yulong and Zhou Meihui who are keen to promote organic farming. However, more than 20 years ago, Taiwan's agriculture was so damaged by pesticides that it is difficult for us to do so today. imagination.

Polychlorinated biphenyl triggered the green movement

The older generation of Taiwanese people still remember the "PCB poisoning incident" because it was this incident that triggered a series of green movements in Taiwan. In the summer of 1979, unscrupulous operators in Taichung, Taiwan used rice bran oil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls to make cooking oil. After eating it, many people suffered from skin ulcers and black bodies. There were thousands of victims in Taiwan. Since then, a comprehensive emphasis on food sources has begun. In addition to the PCB poisoning incident, there was also a counterfeit wine incident. Professor Chai Songlin raised his voice and convened several lawyers, professors and scholars to establish the "Consumer Cultural and Educational Foundation" to protect Taiwan's consumer rights. check.

The Consumer Council began to randomly inspect various products on the market twice a week, ranging from dry goods from the north and south, Chinese medicinal materials, even betel nut betel leaves , the bride's rose bouquet, vegetables and fruits, all were inspected at their own expense. Spend your money to buy these products on the market, send them to professional testing agencies for testing, and hold regular press conferences to announce the results to the public. Since the Consumer Protection Foundation is a corporate foundation with no profit-making purpose, the data they publish has great credibility among consumers. It is also because of the birth of the Consumer Protection Foundation that the competent authority, the Department of Health, has also begun Conduct random inspections of various foods on the market and inform the public.

Five or six years after the Consumer Foundation was established, another social incident occurred in Dali Township, Taichung, Taiwan, in which residents broke into the pesticide factory and demanded a shutdown due to protests against pollution from the Sanhuang Pesticide Factory. This forced the Taiwanese government to establish the "Environmental Protection Agency" .

"Taiwan's pesticide pollution is so serious, it has a lot to do with the US aid back then!" Dai Meihui, CEO of the Dai Yanhui Cultural and Educational Foundation, explained. Before the withdrawal of the Kuomintang, Taiwan did not have the habit of mass production of pesticides. Even after being ruled by Japan for fifty years, Taiwan still maintained the natural planting methods of the past. "However, after Taiwan received US aid, in order to increase crop production, it introduced American farming methods and used a large amount of machinery and pesticides, which caused a lot of damage to Taiwan's arable land." Zhuang Yulong added.

We have all seen in movies the scene of Americans spraying corn fields with small planes, and the Americans also brought this farming method to Taiwan. In addition, Taiwan is located in the subtropics and has many pests and diseases. Pesticides introduced from the United States can kill a large number of crop pests and are loved by Taiwanese farmers. In addition, American chemical fertilizers can increase crop production. In a country that mainly exports agricultural products, Naturally, it was very popular. However, this production method, which uses a large amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, destroys the original pH of the land and causes the accumulation of toxins absorbed by the human body.

According to Taiwan National Chung Hsing University Agronomic System Statistics, Taiwan's average annual pesticide use from 1990 to 1995 was 37,000 tons, costing NT$4.1 billion, ranking first in Asia and known as the "Kingdom of Pesticides." According to figures from the Consumer Council, if the total annual pesticide use is divided by the population, each person in Taiwan consumes 2 kilograms of pesticides every year.

"For a while, major hospitals in Taiwan had specialized toxicology departments to deal with pesticide poisoning !" Zhou Meihui said. Zhou Meihui studied in Germany with her husband and was very impressed by Germany's promotion of solar energy and green industries. After returning to Taiwan, she vigorously promoted renewable energy. In addition, her brother-in-law Dai Dongyuan was the director of National Taiwan University Hospital in Taiwan, so she was very concerned about the pesticide poisoning of Taiwanese people. Have a deep understanding.

Data show that between 1959 and 1981, a total of 28,358 people were seriously poisoned by pesticides in Taiwan, of which 26,877 were poisoned by spraying, and among them were nothing more than weed-killing Balazon and insect-killing organophosphorus , and bactericidal metal compounds . Therefore, in the past, the toxicology department of Taiwanese hospitals was quite experienced in dealing with these pesticide poisonings. "At that time, hospitals in Taiwan only sent patients who were confused or had a rapid heartbeat during the day. If the patient is dressed as a farmer, 99% of them are poisoned by the above three types!" said a senior toxicologist.

The endless poisoning incidents are staged in the media every day, which inevitably makes Taiwanese people worried. The promotion of organic agriculture was also officially introduced to Taiwan at this time. In 1985, the Taiwanese government began to evaluate the feasibility of organic agriculture in Taiwan. In 1991, it was officially Japan's most famous "MOA" natural farming method was introduced, and then there was the so-called organic certification , and organic chain stores that blossomed everywhere were born at this time.

Green planting in Taiwan

Rooftop vegetable gardens

It is popular in Taiwan to grow vegetables in styrofoam boxes or plastic pots on balconies or on the top floors of apartments, which is called "elevated planting." This kind of elevated planting uses a wooden frame to elevate the plastic vegetable boxes, which are neatly displayed and stacked on the shelf. This completely solves the problem of soiling on the floor after fertilizer was grown on the top floor. The vegetable pots are also specially designed. , will not fall to the ground due to typhoon or heavy rain.

In a community building called "Left and Right" in the North District of Taichung City, all 120 households in the community voted to change the sky garden into a sky garden. They spent a lot of money on waterproofing the roof. After all the preparation work was done, the residents turned the 200-square-foot sky garden into a vegetable garden. As long as the residents of the community are willing to grow their own vegetables, they can register with the community management committee and be allocated a vegetable garden. If they do not have one, they can It doesn’t matter if you run out of time or get tired of planting, there will always be other residents queuing up for your vegetable garden.

grows vegetables and sells them to employees for consumption

Shanhua Town, Tainan County, Taiwan panel manufacturer Chimei Electronics has opened a vegetable garden called "Shanhua Nursery" here, covering an area of ​​40 hectares, growing vegetables in an organic way for supply Chimei's group meal is sold to employees at a cheap price during the season of heavy harvest.

In the south, Chimei Electronics grows vegetables for its employees, while in the north, the time-honored brand Formosa Plastics develops its own farm and sells organic vegetables. Formosa Plastics founder Wang Yongqing makes compost and grows organic vegetables on the roof of his home. He also develops his own food waste compost to make the lychee tree on the top floor bloom and bear fruit. Before Wang Yongqing passed away, the Formosa Plastics Building in Taipei had a vegetable cart every three days. It drove into the office of Formosa Environmental Technology, a company affiliated with Formosa Plastics in the back building, and sold vegetables to Formosa Plastics employees.

Farmers have transformed into organic

Organic farms have sprung up in Taiwan in recent years. In order to improve the online marketing and promotion of these guerrilla farms, The Agricultural and Food Administration of the Executive Yuan Committee of Agriculture even commissioned Yilan University to provide services for these farms Build a website and establish an "organic electronic mall", "organic farmer's market" and "organic farm integration system" on the Internet. These markets and shopping malls have a dazzling array of organic products. Fruits and vegetables, rice, tea, and all daily agricultural products can be purchased online. Consumers can find out which farm the vegetables they buy come from and order directly from the farmer.

Under the influence of government guidance and social trends, many farms that did not use organic production in the past have now begun to operate organic farms. The "Bi Luo Village Organic Farm" owned by the Wu brothers in Fuxing Township, Taoyuan County is one of them. .Boss Wu Guoqiang inherited the farmland left by his parents. They left the farmland fallow for seven years to completely let the soil rest and restore its original pH value. Then they planted it organically and further expanded it into a tourist and leisure site. The farm has become a special attraction in Fuxing Township, Taoyuan County. In Taiwan, there are many examples like the Wu brothers.

Organic food and organic farms have become a common practice in Taiwan. Taiwanese people are now using the same energy they used to develop their economy to develop organic agriculture. When you are drinking a cup of organic herb tea at an organic farm in Taiwan, it is hard to imagine that Taiwan was still known as the "Kingdom of Pesticides" back then.