To barbecue, or not to barbecue?

On one hand, the Chinese Wild Bird Federation initiated a “no barbecue for the Moon Festival” campaign three weeks ago, which had soon won endorsements from more than 300 animal conservation and environmental protection associations and over 6,000 individuals. They called for the central and local governments not to promote the traditional barbecue activity.

But on the other hand, local livestock farmers associations threatened to take to the streets if the governments fail to encourage local people to barbecue, because, as it is, they can hardly sustain viable operations due to sluggish market demand and ever-declining sales prices.

A spokesman with the Chinese Wild Bird Federation said that with the public’s growing awareness of reducing energy consumption and cutting carbon dioxide emissions, the “no barbecue for the Moon Festival” campaign has been endorsed by over 300 groups and 6,000 people within less than one month.

The spokesman said that among the endorsers are teachers, residents in communities, and employees in private enterprises, and they opined that if family members can jointly make tea, eat moon cakes and peel pomelo under the moonlight, the pleasure won’t be inferior to having a barbecue, let alone effective reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

The association cited customs statistics as indicating that Taiwan imported 34 million kilograms of charcoal a year, with 95 percent coming from Indonesia, Malaysia and mainland China. It requires 6 to 10 kilograms of timber to produce one kilogram of charcoal, and one hectare of forestry plantation area can produce 150,000 kilograms of timber, which, in turn, can be used to turn out 15,000 kilograms of charcoal.

Accordingly, to meet Taiwan’s annual demand for 34 million kilograms of charcoal, as many as 2,260 hectares of forest need be felled, equivalent to the area of as many as 79 Daan Forest Parks in Taipei, the association spokesman said.

Therefore, without the barbecue activity on the Moon Festival, not only will many trees not be chopped, but carbon dioxide emissions can also be cut significantly, the spokesman continued.

Last year, many local governments sponsored 10,000-person barbecue activities at parks and riverbeds in their own administrative areas, but this year, some governments, including Taipei City, Taipei County, Taoyuan County, Hualien County, Taichung City and Keelung City have moved to persuade residents not to barbecue.

But some other counties and cities are still planning to announce suitable sites for large-sized barbecue activities by residents before the Moon Festival, which falls on Sept. 14 this year.

To counter, the wild animal association will join forces with other conservation and environmental protection groups to request chiefs of these counties and cities not to hurt the Earth again.

On another front, local hog farmers associations called for President Ma Ying-jeou and central government officials to encourage people to barbecue on the Moon Festival to revitalize the livestock industry and other relevant agricultural sectors.

They required the Council of Agriculture not to support the “no barbecue for the Moon Festival” campaign, and asked local county or city governments not to suspend the 10,000-person barbecue activity on the upcoming festival. Otherwise, the hog farmers groups threatened to take to the streets.

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