Yang Ching-hsi, director-general of the EPA Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Bureau, said the EPA asked city and county governments two weeks ago not to sponsor barbecues this year in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Moon Festival, which falls on Sept. 14.

“The EPA’s call was aimed at promoting efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and reduce volumes of environment-depleting garbage,” Yang said.

“The EPA, however, has no right to bar people from barbecuing during the festive season if they insist,” he added.

Yang made the remarks in response to news reports saying that local livestock farmers associations have threatened to take to the streets if the governments failed to encourage local people to barbecue.

The livestock farmers said they were having trouble sustaining their operations due to sluggish market demand and low profit margins.

Last year, many local governments sponsored 10,000-person barbecue activities at parks and riverbeds in their respective administrative areas, causing heavy air pollution and producing excessive amounts of garbage and turning the family holiday into an “environmentally disastrous” day.

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