Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Hold Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum... Exploring Activation of 'Local Agricultural Products'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] A forum where the public, experts, and government discuss local food policies, which are gaining attention as safe food sources, will be held.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 24th that the 6th Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum will be held on the 25th under the theme "Local Food that Saves Health, Regional Economy, and the Earth."

Since 2013, the government has made multifaceted efforts to revitalize local food by supporting direct sales stores, enacting the Agricultural Products Direct Transaction Act, and preparing a three-year promotion plan for the spread of local food. As a result, the number of local food direct sales stores, which was only 32 in 2013, increased significantly to 554 as of 2020. Recently, the number of consumer members and sales at direct sales stores have also increased sharply, and the supply system of local food through public meals has expanded.

The open communication forum, held online, consists of two parts: Part 1 is a public forum live-streamed on YouTube (Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum), and Part 2 is a small group discussion using Zoom. Anyone can participate. Part 1 will open with an introduction to the theme by Park Byung-hong, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Deputy Minister Park will share the current government's local food policy and discuss the social value and importance of local food.

Part 2 will be a small group discussion to discover policy proposals, where 50 pre-registered citizens will engage in in-depth discussions on local food policies with professional facilitators.

The various opinions collected at this open communication forum will be organized into policy proposals through a maturation forum, reviewed by the relevant ministries (until the end of September), and reflected in policies. The policy proposals discovered through the forum and the results of their policy reflection can be checked on the Gwanghwamun 1st Street website.

Han Chang-seop, Director of Government Innovation Organization at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "Local food is an important policy that realizes social values ranging from public health and regional economic revitalization to environmental protection," and added, "We hope that citizens will share their diverse thoughts on revitalizing local food from the perspectives of producers or consumers at the forum."

Meanwhile, following this forum, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to hold the 7th Open Communication Forum in September under the theme "Happy Retirement Life Prepared Together by All Generations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.