[New Taipei City News] New Taipei City Government was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the 6th Asian Local Governments for Organic Agriculture (ALGOA) Summit today (October 12). The Summit will start at 1 p.m. on October 14th virtually. New Taipei City Government and other local governments, including France, Portugal, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, etc., will share experiences promoting organic school meals.

ALGOA is a multinational organization composed of local governments in Asian countries committed to promoting organic agriculture; it encourages the development of organic agriculture in Asia by holding summits, training courses, and transnational projects. This year’s conference will process through online meetings and provide live broadcasts in response to the pandemic so that more friends with enthusiasm for organic issues can participate in this global event without traveling a long way. ALOGA also officially announced the establishment of the Global Alliance of Organic Districts (GAOD). GAOD includes working groups on policy governance, tourism, catering, renewable energy, food safety, production and marketing, urban-rural gap, resource sharing, youth empowerment, etc., and connects more local governments in Asia and abroad that actively promote organic policies. This ALGOA Summit is not only a platform for the exchange of organic governance experience in Asia but also beyond Asia. ALGOA also specially invited New Taipei City Government to share the governance experience of New Taipei’s organic school meal experience. Everyone is welcome to register and watch the conference online ( https://asia.ifoam.bio/the-6th-algoa-summit-registration-form/.)

Wen Lee, the Commissioner of Agriculture Department of the New Taipei City Government, noticed that since the promotion of organic school lunch in New Taipei City, 666 schools, public nurseries, and kindergartens have participated in the policy, benefiting 360,000 schoolchildren, and the weekly consumption of organic vegetables is about 39 tons. This successful experience led all counties and cities in Taiwan to follow up in response. New Taipei City Government’s Organic School Meal policy benefits organic farmers and expands the total area of organic farming fields. New Taipei City Government also promotes eco-friendly farming in the spirit of Organic 3.0 and encourages consumer participation and food agriculture education. Organic farming grew from 22 hectares in 2015 to 252.8 hectares in September 2020. New Taipei City Government has also cooperated with ALOGA to launch ALGOA Center for Public Procurement (ACPP) to connect GAOD’s global resources based on the successful experience of the organic school meal policies to gather the models in different countries with similar policies into programs that can be promoted to governments and private enterprises.