Anti-clenbuterol beef! Food Safety Alliance protests near AIT

The Legislative Yuan will vote on the amendment to the Food Sanitation Management Act on the 12th, which is related to whether to lift the ban on ractopamine. The "Food Safety Alliance", composed of civic groups such as the Housewives' Union, held up a white banner next to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) this morning to reiterate the "We want health, we oppose ractopamine" slogan. They also wore masks of US President Obama and AIT Taipei Office Director Stuart E. Lee, and used action drama to interpret the US's domineering approach of using the TIFA negotiations to pressure our country to "swallow" ractopamine beef.

Members of the Food Safety Alliance put on Obama and Stuart Stoker masks and used action comedy to satirize the US's overbearing behavior of asking Taiwanese people to "swallow" beef containing ractopamine. (Photography by Zhang Yawen)

U.S. officials recently publicly stated that the issue of U.S. beef is a stumbling block for Taiwan and the United States to restart TIFA negotiations. When President Ma Ying-jeou attended the party caucus yesterday, he also demonstrated his determination that the U.S. beef containing ractopamine must be voted through. Several legislators who originally expressed support for zero detection of ractopamine have reportedly softened their positions, causing the Food Safety Alliance to be very worried and hold an emergency protest.

Chen Manli, chairwoman of the Housewives' Union Foundation, said that she welcomes American beef to Taiwan, but does not want American beef containing ractopamine. She stressed that the United States is using American beef as a threshold to restart negotiations, which shows that it has no respect for Taiwan. She said, "Even the health of the people can be used as a bargaining chip. What about next time? How much of our country does the United States want?" She also criticized President Ma for not listening to the voice of the people and only using the opinions of the sycophants around him.

Zheng Xiujuan, president of Wenshan Community College, said that the government claims that American beef containing ractopamine is safe, but there is still scientific uncertainty. How can we equate "no evidence of harm" with "harmless"? They also questioned the government's mobilization to protect American beef, saying it was the greatest insult to the people.

Zhang Honglin, executive director of the Citizens Oversight Alliance, stressed that since the United States cannot provide scientific evidence that beef laced with ractopamine is safe, it proves the fact that all the foreign guests hosted by President Obama at the White House consumed beef laced with ractopamine. In addition, he also called on several KMT legislators who had publicly proposed opposing clenbuterol to not be patted on the head and to stick to their stance and vote against it.