Today (4th) is Luna New Year’s Eve. We believe that many families have long started their preparation for a scrumptious reunion dinner to welcome the return of family members. However, an African swine fever epidemic has severely swept through Mainland China. To prevent the virus from entering the Taiwanese pig farming system, the Council of Agriculture has prohibited unqualified pig farms from using kitchen waste to feed their pigs. The EPA urges people to restrain from making too much food during the Spring Festival so as not to create excessive kitchen waste that is difficult to process.
It’s time for the annual reunion dinner, a traditional custom of the Chinese people. A dining table brimmed with dishes fit for the occasion and more food that packs the refrigerator are meant to ensure that the whole family has more than enough to feast on with leftover--to symbolize that the family has leftover fortune year after year.
However, times have changed. Binge eating is bad for health, and too much leftover food, reheated, will soon bore you. Dumping leftover food is awfully wasteful. In the face of formidable African swine fever viruses, many pig farmers have stopped collecting kitchen waste to feed their pigs lest the highly resistant African swine fever viruses should follow kitchen waste to get into the Taiwanese pig farming system. Consequently, a huge amount of kitchen waste has made it difficult to handle.
EPA Administrator Chang Tzi-Chin therefore urged our countrymen to “eat green”, cherish the food, and not to cook too much food. At home, cook just enough for the family; at restaurants, order just for your party, and pack a doggy bag to take home if you do not finish what you ordered. This reduces kitchen waste and is environmentally friendly to your body. Administrator Chang said, “(in original voice) As for volume reduction, we remind and urge people that ‘cherish the food’ means cooking less food and eating less.”
Furthermore, Administrator Chang also urged all people to refrain from handling pork, pig innards, and pork products as kitchen waste during these times. Administrator Chang said, “(in original voice) Therefore I’d like to take this opportunity to appeal to all people about African swine fever. First, don’t bring raw pork into this country. Second, if you did bring it into the country, throw it and other pork products into trash cans, not kitchen waste pails. That’s to say because you don’t know whether the pork came from an infected area or not and whether it carries the ASF virus or not, you simply throw the meat into trash for our incinerators to handle and to reduce the chances of our pigs getting infected.“
Administrator Chang suggested that, in the event that you must put things into kitchen waste pails, you drain water out to reduce the weight and make further handling easier.