Earlier this month, Lee Jae-myung of the center-left Democratic Social gathering received South Korea’s presidential election. Driving a wave of public discontent with former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Folks Energy Social gathering after months of political turmoil, Lee’s victory was welcomed by distinguished Korean peasant unions as an indication of the folks’s need to beat inner divisions.
In his inauguration speech and subsequent coverage bulletins, President Lee emphasised the necessity for “state accountability in agriculture,” climate-resilient farming, and stronger meals safety. He known as for brand spanking new laws that will redefine how the federal government helps farmers, shoppers, and nationwide meals provide methods.
Even through the marketing campaign in April, Lee unveiled an agricultural agenda aimed toward reworking South Korea right into a “Okay-agriculture powerhouse.” He pledged to increase good farming and strengthen social security nets for farmers.
Media experiences had quoted him as saying, “Amid the local weather disaster, agriculture stands on the entrance strains of nationwide safety—defending meals sovereignty and making certain our survival. We are going to provoke a serious shift in agricultural coverage to boost competitiveness, safeguard farmers’ livelihoods, and create new engines of progress for Korea.”
His plan contains compensation for agricultural disasters, the growth of good farming applied sciences, retirement and welfare assist for growing older farmers, an elevated agricultural funds and revenue security web, and reform of the Grain Administration Act to make sure honest rice costs.
The Korean Peasant League (KPL) and the Korean Ladies Peasants Affiliation (KWPA) responded with cautious optimism. Whereas they welcomed some parts of the proposals, they expressed concern over the shortage of particular implementation plans.
The brand new administration’s pledge to introduce a Meals Sovereignty Act has attracted consideration. Talking to IKP Information, the coverage chair of the Korean Peasants League famous that lots of their long-standing calls for now seem within the authorities’s pledges. Particularly, the promise to legislate a Meals Sovereignty Act displays what he known as a basic shift in how agriculture is known. Nevertheless, he added that, since most of those pledges stay summary, shut monitoring of their implementation can be important.
The unions have lengthy warned that efforts to turn into an “agriculture powerhouse” can result in an export-driven mannequin, typically at odds with meals sovereignty. By definition, meals sovereignty is the correct of individuals to wholesome, culturally acceptable meals produced by way of ecologically sound and sustainable strategies—and their proper to outline their very own meals and agriculture methods. It prioritizes the wants and rights of producers and shoppers over company and market calls for, promotes inter-generational fairness, and helps localized, democratic management of meals methods.
Han Seung-ah, coverage chair of the Korean Ladies Peasants Affiliation, additionally welcomed the proposed route. She famous that whereas it stays unclear how the Meals Sovereignty Act will handle farmers’ rights to manufacturing or shoppers’ rights to wholesome meals, the administration’s broader emphasis on state accountability offers some hope.
She expressed disappointment, nonetheless, that whereas ladies farmers had been acknowledged, no concrete pledges had been made to deal with gender inequality in rural areas or to increase assist establishments particularly for ladies in agriculture.
Producer organizations, together with the Nationwide Garlic Producers Affiliation and the Nationwide Onion Producers Affiliation, have additionally reacted to the coverage pledges They expressed hope that the Lee administration would take stronger steps towards provide administration and set up a steady security web for farm operations. For years, garlic growers have campaigned towards the federal government’s continued use of low-tariff quotas (TRQs) to import garlic, arguing that this coverage depresses native costs regardless of enough home provide. With value points creating pressure between producers and shoppers, these teams emphasised the necessity for a shift in agricultural coverage—one which ensures steady home manufacturing over short-term value competitiveness.
On the similar time, peasant unions have raised considerations about inconsistencies within the coverage package deal. Applications like RE100 and “photo voltaic pensions,” in addition to proposals to increase good farming and different revenue sources, might have unintended penalties if rolled out poorly. For instance, firms selling photo voltaic vitality infrastructure on farmland, the aggressive push for good farming applied sciences, and elevated dependence on non-farm revenue all danger sidelining sustainable, small-scale agriculture.
For over a decade, Korean peasant unions have opposed good farming insurance policies, which they see as enabling company management of agriculture. They warn that good farms prioritize high-tech options and large-scale capital funding, undermining agroecological practices, conventional seeds, and low-input strategies. As company actors achieve better affect over agricultural methods, smallholders worry shedding autonomy, falling into debt, and changing into trapped in exploitative contract farming methods.
As quoted by IKP News, union leaders warned that no matter how promising the pledges might sound, except there’s a deeper transformation within the philosophy of agricultural policy-making, there stays a danger of repeating previous errors—the place effectivity and productiveness take priority over sovereignty, sustainability, and justice.
This text contains materials from a report by Jang Su-ji for IKP News.
