Exclusive interview with COA Minister Chen Chi-chung: Politics with just a backpack, where is Taiwan's agriculture headed?
With a center-parted fringe and a color-blocked striped sweater under his suit jacket, the new Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung clearly has not put much effort into his political image. "I don't care about any of that. I never intended to develop anything in this (political) field." He turns around and takes out from the green backpack he carries to work every day the "cheat sheet" specially made for this interview. That is what he truly cares about: the agricultural policy blueprint that, more than two years into his term, has still not been fully realized.
Although he is a scholar-turned-official, Chen Chi-chung comes from a farming family; he has harvested red beans and washed out pig sheds. He speaks quickly but not very smoothly, and rarely argues when facing negative reviews. Last year the weather was favorable, yet from onions, garlic, bananas and pineapples to cabbage, imbalances between production and sales were frequently reported, and farmers' dissatisfaction was brutally reflected in the elections at the end of last year, with criticism rising and falling on all sides. But as the Tsai administration's Executive Yuan premier changed for the third time and two COA ministers stepped down, Chen Chi-chung did not retreat but was promoted instead. In fact, he had also repeatedly asked to leave, but stayed on after being persuaded by three former ministers, Li Chin-lung, Tsao Chi-hung and Lin Tsung-hsien. Former COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung, who served under the Kuomintang government, also congratulated him on Facebook and said: in the Democratic Progressive Party, he is the only one who truly understands agricultural policy.
