Agriculture Agency Sues Farmer Over His Critique|遭質疑賤賣公糧 農糧署怒告菜農

Lin Chia-hsin, a farmer from Yunlin County often discusses agricultural policies. Recently, he published a Facebook post in which he criticized the Agriculture and Food Agency for selling farm produce at a low price due to pressure from certain legislators. The act has allowed some companies to resell it and get huge profit margin from China. The incident has continued to attract public attention and AFA believes Lin has propagated false rumors, and sued him to restore the reputation of government agencies.


Lin Chia-hsin posted his comments on Facebook and talked on a TV talk show about the selling of public farm produce at a low price to China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO), a company in China. Based in Yunlin County, Lin has often engaged in critiques on agricultural policies and has criticized the Agriculture and Food Agency for selling public farm produce at an abnormally low price under the pressure of legislators, and the act allowed local trade companies to resell the produce at large margins for higher profit. The agency believes Lin has propagated false information to the public and sued him on March 5 for insulting an official agency.

His propagation of false rumors about the agency selling public produce at low prices has tarnished the agency's reputation. The Agriculture and Food Agency has officially filed a lawsuit in an effort to clear the air with the public.

The Agriculture and Food Agency says that public farm produce, according to different rice harvest stages, is for military ration and school lunch respectively. Since 2013, it has begun to sell externally. All sales have been handled according to regulations, and the agency has never been under pressure from legislators or gave special prices for certain buyers. Lin Chia-hsin responded to the agency's lawsuit saying it is simply trying to shift the public's focus away.

The companies that (allegedly bought produce at a lower price) are subsidiaries under the state-owned CPC and Taiwan Power company. It has never handled any business in the farm produce sector. To sell produce to these companies is fundamentally wrong.

Lin says that he's hurt and angered about the lawsuit. He questions why Agriculture and Food Agency resorts to legal means to handle the matter while disregarding the issues that he brought up. On the other hand, some believes Lin Chia-hsin was a friend of Kaohsiung City Mayor Han Kuo-yu and that his critiques could be politically motivated, which is why the Tsai Ing-wen administration decided to target him with legal measures. The Agriculture and Food agency says the legal process has officially begun and that it refrains from giving further comments.