Massive applications of pesticides during the last few decades have helped Taiwan's farm yields reach exceedingly high levels. But increasing consumer awareness about the health hazards from pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables is prompting the agricultural sector to worry about issues other than the size of their yields.
Government statistics show that in 1989 farmers utilized 36,000 metric tons of pesticides on farmlands totaling almost 2 million acres (1.5 million were planted to rice, the rest to fruits and vegetables). The cost of the pesticides at wholesale prices amounted to a total of US$110 million. The majority of the pesticides were imported, although local pesticide manufacturers also import semifinished materials for final processing here.
According to statistics from the Taiwan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Taiwan ranks third in the world in the amount of pesticides used per unit of planted area, with Japan occupying the top slot. Agricultural experts attribute the high density of pesticide utilization in Taiwan to the island's hot and humid semitropical climate, making it an especially favorable environment for pests, and to the island's yearly production cycle, with its multiple harvests.
Farmers have good reason to spray pesticides. Without their use, it is estimated that the annual output of rice paddies, for example, would decrease 15 percent with the first harvest, and 30 percent by the second harvest. Consumers also share part of the responsibility for the excessive use of pesticides because they prefer buying aesthetically pleasing fruits and vegetables that are undamaged by hungry insects.
But farmers are now noticing altered consumer buying habits because of the pesticide issue. The heightened public concern about the problem has been prompted by informed sources as well as by rumors. Both sources have had an impact. Some rumors have instilled a general attitude of fear. One story of this sort, which made the rounds earlier this year, originated in the southern city of Pingtung. It seems that a number of ducks were found dead not long after they ate some unsold vegetables that had been discarded by a market vendor.
Consumer fears about pesticide use are not assuaged by the growing suspicion that the farmers themselves do not eat what they produce and sell in the markets. Instead, it is said that farmers set aside special plots for themselves and use little or no pesticides on them.
Lishan, in central Taiwan, is one agricultural area that is starting to receive especially close attention from environmentalists and health inspectors. Located off the East-West Cross-Island Highway, the mountainous farm region is famous for its peaches, pears, and apples. But the fruit growers in Lishan spend millions of dollars annually on pesticides, and have the highest utilization per land unit in Taiwan. There have been some reports that pesticide use is so intense in the area that the farmers dare not drink from water sources near their orchards. Compounding the problem, the pesticides are washed down by the rain to the irrigation systems at the foot of the mountain. The heavy use of pesticide in the orchards has been blamed for twenty deaths in the last eighteen months and for the higher incidence of cirrhosis now occurring among Lishan residents.
Pesticide contamination of food has become a conscious consumer issue. In a survey conducted last year in greater Taipei, half of the housewives interviewed placed pesticide residue as a primary consideration when buying fruits and vegetables (other considerations include taste, nutrition, and price). In response to these concerns, the government has stepped up its testing of vegetables and fruits for pesticide residue. According to official sources, the findings so far appear to be more comforting than environmentalists would have expected.
The Bureau of Food Hygiene (under the Department of Health), for example, reports that in FY 1990, which ended June 31, 1990, its National Laboratories of Food and Drugs tested 1,066 samples of fruits and vegetables. The samples represented varieties that were likely to be contaminated with pesticide residue. Only 1.6 percent did not pass the test, a substantial improvement over the testing results for 1989, which had a contamination rate of 3.4 percent for 652 samples. In Taipei, the city government's Department of Public Health in 1989 tested 6,063 samples picked randomly from markets. The failure rate stood at 0.16 percent. The year before, the failure rate was 0.15 percent out of 3.917 samples.
Chen Shu-kung, deputy director of the Bureau of Food Hygiene, says that a similar test conducted in the U.S. carried a 2 to 4 percent contamination rate. "Rest assured, local consumers can eat fruits and vegetables," he says. Another government official, Li Yuan chi, head of the pesticide surveillance team at the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation (TAPMARC), points out that according to one medical research report, the pesticide content in the urine of local people is less than that found in Americans and Europeans.
At present, the government conducts testing for pesticide contamination in three stages. First, a staff of eighteen testers from nine surveillance stations travel to major vegetable and fruit-growing areas before the harvest to collect samples. Then, before the produce is sold, laboratories connected with major wholesale markets evaluate samples for contamination. Finally, public hygiene agencies at the local government level regularly test samples taken from retail markets.
The government has also sought to educate farmers on the use of pesticides and the harmful effects of their abuse. Farmers whose produce have residue exceeding the safety level are subject to fines ranging from US$500 to US$2,800, or a jail term of several months. Farmers regularly receive summonses to attend educational seminars on the use of pesticides. In the past two years, for instance, the provincial government's Department of Agriculture and Forestry has called growers of tea, star fruits, strawberries, grapes, and wax apples to attend such programs.
Consumers in metropolitan areas, especially Taipei, are the most protected from pesticide-contaminated food in their market baskets. When 1,000 metric tons of vegetables and fruits arrive at the TAPMARC wholesale market each day, three testers at the corporation's laboratory take fifty samples and test them for pesticide residue. Biochemical testing methods enable the testers to have the preliminary results by 4:00 A.M. The laboratory orders the confiscation of what appears to be contaminated fruit. The samples are then sent to the city government's Department of Public Health for advanced testing, using the more sophisticated method of gas chromatography.
Some of the samples are cleared at this stage (often about one-third), and TAPMARC compensates the growers whose produce was confiscated and then cleared. Says tester Li Yuan-chi, "Our method can yield quick results, although they are only roughly accurate. The testing is done in the interest of the consumers, and we are willing to compensate growers for produce wrongly confiscated."
Taipei's major supermarkets also aid in the growing of "clean" fruits and vegetables by awarding contracts to farmers whose produce consistently passes contamination tests. Oftentimes, these farmers cover their farm fields under a net canopy or a PVC (polyvinyl chloride) blanket to ward off pests and, consequently, reduce the need for pesticides. Also, strict monitoring of production and harvesting by the farmers' associations has helped reduce pesticide abuse.
In general, pesticide use islandwide has been decreasing rapidly since 1983. One reason is that there are more effective pesticides on the market, which are mixed with larger quantities of water. Many of the new pesticides are also safer, causing deathly harm to pests but little danger to humans and animals. The government has also banned the use of forty types of pesticides which may cause cancer, gene mutation, and infertility. The declining prices for agricultural products have also discouraged farmers from using large doses of pesticides because they involve added expense.
Scientific research has also come up with effective methods that reduce or eliminate the need for pesticides. One method involves isolating the sex hormone of a target pest. The pests are then lured to an area by using the sex hormone, and then the assembled pests are sprayed with a pesticide. Another method is to protect tree-grown fruits by covering them with paper bags. This is common practice on several thousands of hectares islandwide.
Nevertheless, there is not wide-spread optimism regarding the current status of Taiwan's pesticide contamination problem. Dr. Edward Cheng, chief of pesticide research at the laboratory of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, remains wary of positive statistics. "The reality is much more serious than the rosy official picture," he says. "Officials in charge are diluting the whole issue so as not to offend the farmers and the pesticide manufacturers. But this has only misled people to consume considerable amounts of contaminated vegetables and fruits."
Cheng is a consultant to TAPMARC, and he reports that during certain seasons, sample testing of vegetables yields a failure rate that can go as high as 50 percent. He points to the weak contamination screening system as a major contributing factor to the problem. "I did my own calculations," he says. "With only eighteen government pesticide supervisors working islandwide, a farmer has a chance of encountering one of them once in thirty years."
Another problem resides in the testing method used. Cheng says that except for TAPMARC, government testing laboratories use gas chromatography. "The government spends millions on these tests, but it takes a week, even a month, to confirm the results," he says. "By then the fruits and vegetables in question have already been consumed. So what is the use of those tests if the produce ends up in consumers' stomachs anyway?"
In an attempt to improve the situation, Cheng, who also serves as a consultant to the Consumers' Foundation, has helped forty farmers' associations and markets to establish their own testing systems. But, as a number of health experts have pointed out, no matter what kind of screening system is established, the final protection of public health from contaminated fruits and vegetables rests ultimately in the hands of the public. "Even if TAPMARC has a very efficient screening system, they can only test less than one percent of the 1,000 tons of fruits and vegetables entering Taipei every day," Cheng says. "And every year they confiscate 1.3 tons of produce. So we can estimate that roughly 150 tons of fruits and vegetables that might be contaminated are consumed by Taipei residents."
To protect consumers from pesticide residue, experts on pesticide contamination testing have offered some guidelines in the purchase and preparation of fruits and vegetables. They warn, for example, that after a typhoon or during the rainy season, farmers rush the harvest and increase the use of pesticides to take advantage of high market prices. They also point out that supermarkets have better screening procedures for contaminated produce than the traditional "wet markets" (neighborhood stores selling perishables). The underlying message is that the wise consumer is the most effective deterrent to the excessive use of pesticides. —Philip Liu is the editor in-chief of Business Taiwan, an English language weekly published in Taipei.