【New Taipei City News】New Taipei City has been actively promoting the development of organic agriculture continuously due to its unique natural environment and population advantage. It attracts young farmers to invest in organic agricultural production and encourages the growth of Taiwan’s overall organic agriculture through the organic school lunch policy. In cooperation with IFOAM Asia, New Taipei City Government held the first “IFOAM Asia Organic Youth Forum” starting on March 26, 2019, under the theme of “Access to Markets: A Road to Sustainability.” It is the first time Taiwan has hosted the IFOAM Asia Organic Youth Forum cross-cultural conference. Experts and scholars from Germany, South Korea, Japan, India, and Mainland China were invited to share their experiences. The government-industry-university-institute representative of Taiwan also talked about our experiences and the importance of market channels in developing organic agriculture.

Yu-Ih Hou, the Mayor of New Taipei City, stated that the development of organic agriculture and the creation of marketing channels are essential policies that have been carried over from the previous mayor to the present. With the organic school lunch policies, New Taipei City reveals the urban population’s consumption capacity, drives the overall supply and production of organic agricultural products with demand, and lays the foundation and confidence for young farmers to dedicate themselves to the organic industry. Cases discussed at the conference also showed that farmers had made promising progress in technology and cognition. Taiwan’s organic agriculture is gradually moving towards the era of organic 3.0. Yu-Ih pointed out at the conference that creating market access is the first task for New Taipei City Government to develop organic agriculture. For this reason, they specially organized the establishment of the Center of Excellence for Intelligent Organic Marketing in Asia (CEIOMA) to deepen the recognition and support of all sectors of society for organic agriculture through intelligent management and cooperate with IFOAM Asia to provide services for the development of organic agriculture in Asia.

New Taipei City Government will import the blockchain to develop a global system for organic certifiers to promote organic products at home and abroad. Young farmers in Asia will continue collaborating to integrate international organic agriculture and make efforts for the agricultural economy and sustainable environment.

IFOAM Asia worked with the New Taipei City Office of Organic Youth Forum for about six months to set a full range of topics and speakers. To act in response that the organic school lunch is the origin of the forum, New Taipei City Government also selects youth representatives to present the development of organic school lunch policies. Participants will visit organic food processing factories, understand the processing of examining SGS products, tour trips to rural rejuvenation communities heading to the Satoyama Initiative and Yonglin Farm, etc. This is an excellent opportunity to gather domestic and global talents and present the development of organic agriculture in Taiwan.

For more information on IFOAM Asia Organic Youth Forum, please visit https://reurl.cc/mye69 or contact the New Taipei City Office of Organic Youth Forum at (02)2964-7950.

More Information:
Agriculture Department, New Taipei City Government Forestry Section Chia-Wen Huang / Chief Tel: 2960-3456 * 31 Mobile: 0921-073-005
Pin-Syan Chen / Director, Secretariat Tel: 2960-3456 * 3016 Mobile: 0920-666-873
Yin-Wei Huang / Chief, Press Contact Tel: 2960-3456 * 3022 Mobile: 0971-081-369
Hsin-Yu Ko / Press Contact Tel: 2960-3456 * 3028 Mobile: 0900-628-190