The threat of the ‘incinerator tea’By Liou Je-wei 劉哲瑋The Nantou County Government on Saturday last week convened an environmental impact assessment meeting on plans to build an incinerator in Mingjian Township (名間). Once heavy metals enter the environment and the tea fields, it would put local tea farmers’ livelihoods and bubble tea food safety standards across the country at risk. The chairman of the Environmental Assessment Committee, National Chi Nan University professor Tsai Yung-pin (蔡勇斌), told the kneeling tea farmers: “You set a terrible example.”Ivory tower arrogance indeed. How could power in Nantou, long governed by the DPP, be flaunted so arrogantly? Once the inevitable “incinerator tea” label takes hold, the decades-long reputation of the purity of Mingjian’s tea would evaporate overnight.

Source: Taipei Times February 02, 2026 17:27 UTC