Section 1
Chiayi County, and what grows there
The cloud belt, the tea, and the standards that govern it.
- The county the mountain sits inAlishan is a range in Chiayi County rather than a single peak, and the growing area spans a considerable altitude range within it.
- Cloud that arrives on a scheduleThe daily cloud belt cuts direct sun and holds the temperature swing that high-mountain tea depends on, which is a growing condition rather than scenery.
- Tea grown above a thousand metresTaiwanese high-mountain oolong is defined by altitude and by a partial oxidation that is stopped deliberately, and Alishan is one of the named growing areas.
- Three different rulebooks, one wordThe EU organic regulation, the USDA National Organic Program and Taiwan's Organic Agriculture Promotion Act of 2018 are separate legal instruments with separate requirements, and equivalence between them is negotiated.
- Somebody has to sign itCertification is issued by accredited bodies rather than by governments directly, and IFOAM sits above them as an umbrella rather than as a regulator.
- A list of what may still be usedOrganic production permits a defined list of inputs, and copper compounds are the long-standing argument on it because they are permitted and they accumulate.
The other sections