Mad-cow disease, avian flu and SARS have prompted disease control authorities around the world to plan the establishment of the Production Profile System. By 2008, the European Union will reject any food product without a traceable production history. The Council of Agricultural has started this system for 60 food items in Taiwan. Taiwan News' Leo Maliksi interviewed Council of Agriculture Minister Lee Chin-lung (李金龍) on this issue.

Taiwan News: Please discuss how the Production Profile System began.

Minister Lee: This is a very new concept and it can be traced to the 1980s, when they discovered the existence of mad-cow disease in the U.K. This disease attacks the brain tissue of cows, causing it to become pitted, like a sponge, hence the term spongiform-bovine spongiform encephalopathy. What causes the disease is an infectious agent called a prion, which is an abnormal form of a typically harmless protein. They either enter a cow's brain through infection or appear there via mutation, and then multiply by causing other proteins to become prions. They damage tissue by destroying nerve cells, leaving holes in the brain, causing the cow to die.
In 1990, doctors and scientists conjectured that there was a connection between this disease and the probable cause of death of some encephalopathy patients whose brains were found to be similar to those of cows that died due to mad-cow disease. But until now, no scientific link has been established between mad-cow disease and persons who died due to a similar condition of their brains. Many scientists hold the view that the cause of death of those persons was probably their having eaten the meat from cows with mad-cow disease.

Taiwan News: Surely there has been much scientific progress to deal with such a harmful protein.

Minister Lee: The protein prion is very difficult to cure. It is a gene that is smaller than DNA and is very tough. It can withstand solvents or heat. Most proteins die at 70℃ but not the prion. This protein is found in the brain, the internal organs the blood system and in urine. Scientists have not yet ascertained if they inhabit the muscles. But in the process of preparing cow's meat, a lot of cutting is done and prion could easily splash onto other parts of the raw meat in the process of preparation. This is why Europe has banned the sale of T-bone steak that is produced by cutting up various parts of the cow raw meat. The Europeans are very concerned because this disease could take from four weeks to ten years to germinate. You do not know when the disease would start to affect your vital systems.

Taiwan News: If it is difficult to eradicate in humans and animals, how do you deal with such a malevolent strain?

Minister Lee: This is how the production profile system comes in. Such a serious disease needs to be contained so disease control authorities in Europe and America have decided to keep records of all food items to be eaten. Their histories of production should be identifiable. They should have identification cards. For example, we need to know that a mango came from a tree planted during the rainy season and that its tree is five years old. We need to know what kind of fertilizer and how many times it was applied to cultivate this mango, which wet market agent bought it, down to the retail outlet that finally sells it to a consumer. The entire lifetime of a fruit or agricultural product should be so transparent in order to give consumers some guarantee that the food they eat is safe.

Taiwan News: Have all countries agreed to this system? What about Taiwan? Wouldn't domestic farmers find it uncomfortable to have their production closely monitored?

Minister Lee: In 2008, the European Union plans to implement rejection of importation of any food product without such an ID. In Japan, this system went into law in 2001. We have also started promoting this system here. If we were to do nothing, our exports would suffer and even our domestic consumers would surely demand such a system. We have started this identifiable agricultural product system on 60 food items.
We are now developing a demonstration model and if we succeed, we will promote the system across the board. Why are we first developing a model? This is because farmers are very unwilling to become the guinea pig, to be the first to be tested. We have to give them a subsidy and at the same time, do a large-scale work of promotion.
In 2004, the COA selected carrots and potatoes from Dounan Farmers' Association, the Yinchuan Rice by the Second Organic Rice Production and Marketing Group in Fuli, Hualien County, the Yihchuen Aromatic Rice from Wufong, Nantou County, and 16 other agricultural products including pineapple, mango, iceberg lettuce, green pea, cabbage, water convolvulus, carrot, corn, tomato, strawberry and tea, as demonstrative crops to begin crop production profiling. As for animal and fish products, it will be started with meat chickens and eels that are exported in larger quantities.