Rep. Lee Gae-ho Receives Excellent National Assembly Member Award at Korean Farmers Association's National Audit Session

Rep. Lee: "We Will Do Our Best to Develop Policies and Secure Budgets for the Advancement of Our Agriculture and Farmers"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Chunsu Kim] On the 9th, Representative Lee Gae-ho announced that he received the Excellent Member of the National Assembly Award at the ‘2021 Korea Agricultural Managers Central Federation National Assembly Audit Excellent Member Award Ceremony’ held in the National Assembly's 3rd Seminar Room.

The Korea Agricultural Managers Central Federation (hereinafter referred to as Han Nong Yeon) has been holding an award ceremony every year since 2006 to commend politicians who represent the voices of farmers.

Regarding the selection of awardees, Han Nong Yeon comprehensively reviewed policy inquiries by members of the National Assembly’s Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, and Fisheries Committee during the regular National Assembly audit period, as well as press releases issued by each member’s office, while also striving to enhance objectivity and fairness through collecting opinions from major media outlets.

Especially, since this year’s audit was held ahead of the 20th presidential election, the evaluation focused on presenting essential industrial structure improvements and development directions as core tasks for the sustainability of agriculture and rural areas, rather than one-time sensational topics.

During the audit period, Representative Lee Gae-ho was praised for setting an example of a people-centered audit by delivering vivid voices of farmers and fishermen suffering in marginalized or blind spots and proposing alternatives, such as urging proactive market isolation to protect rice-producing farms anxious about the rice price collapse, demanding compensation and improvement of restocking standards for farmers unable to recover after culling due to AI (avian influenza), and improving the treatment of the ‘wildfire suppression team’ risking their lives at wildfire sites while receiving daily wages at minimum wage levels.

Accordingly, Han Nong Yeon stated that Representative Lee Gae-ho made significant contributions to enhancing the social, economic, and political rights of farmers through the 2021 National Assembly audit.

Representative Lee Gae-ho said, “As a rural area member of the National Assembly and a former Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, I have considered it my given role and mission to work for the development of agriculture and rural areas and the improvement of farmers’ and fishermen’s rights, and I am grateful to receive such a precious award.” He added, “I understand the meaning of this award as a call to work even harder for our agriculture and rural areas, and I will continue to do my best to prepare policies and secure budgets for agricultural development and farmers.”