Cho Su-jin, “Instead of the Grain Management Act, Let’s Start a Campaign to Eat an Entire Bowl of Rice”

People Power Party leader Kim Gi-hyeon presents a letter of appointment to Cho Su-jin, chair of Minsaeng 119 at the first meeting of the committee held at the National Assembly on April 3. Yonhap News

On April 5, Cho Su-jin, a member of the People Power Party’s (PPP) Supreme Council said, “The problem of rice surplus is a sad reality, and we must discuss Eat a Whole Bowl of Rice,” and added, “There are many women who do not eat rice to lose weight, but compared with other foods, it (rice) actually has fewer calories.” Her words triggered criticism from party members who don’t support President Yoon Suk-yeol. They asked, “Is the Republic of Korea the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea?” The party leader Kim Gi-hyeon also tried to resolve the controversy by asking, “What kind of a solution can that be?”

Cho Su-jin chairs Minsaeng (people’s livelihood) 119, a special committee in the PPP overseeing the people’s livelihoods. On Wednesday, she appeared on KBS radio and when the host asked if the party had any solutions to the problem of excess rice in connection with the amendment of the Grain Management Act, which President Yoon vetoed on Tuesday, Cho said, “The Grain Management Act is about the government’s mandatory purchase of rice surplus. Can this possibly be related to the future of agriculture?” She further said, “The problem of rice surplus is a sad reality, and we (Minsaeng 119) discussed ideas like Eat a Whole Bowl of Rice.” She said, “There are a lot of women who don’t eat rice to lose weight,” and added, “We need to actively promote the fact that rice actually has fewer calories compared with other foods.”

Minsaeng 119, which launched on April 3, chose a campaign to send water to islands as its first task in response to the drought in the Gwangju and Jeollanam-do region, which is suffering from the worst drought in fifty years. In the first meeting, Cho and the other members discussed the committee’s future activities while eating lunch boxes from a convenience store. The committee explained that they selected convenience store meals for their first luncheon after considering that consumers, including workers and students, were turning to these lunch boxes due to rising prices and that the convenience stores were researching menus by creating food research laboratories and hiring hotel chefs.

After the first meeting of Minsaeng 119, Cho met with reporters and said, “After listening to various opinions, we realized drinking water was important, but we are also short on industrial and agricultural water. So we named it the National Movement to Send Water and are compiling specific actions.” However, she said, “It can be mineral water, and the tap water in Seoul, called Arisu, is clean,” and did not mention a specific plan on how to send the water.

In the first meeting, members exchanged ideas on promoting rice consumption with a campaign to change the people’s tendency to avoid rice because people think rice is full of carbohydrates and not helpful when trying to lose weight.

Cho said on the radio Wednesday, “If it were an intermediate to long-term task, we could build facilities like reservoirs by discussing the issue in a meeting of the ruling party and government and by inputting fiscal resources, but Minsaeng 119 has to differentiate itself from such long-term tasks. So we decided on a campaign to send water, which we can carry out immediately (as our first task).”

PPP members who don’t support Yoon (non-Yoon members) immediately attacked her remark. Former PPP leader Lee Jun-seok wrote on social media Wednesday, “If they oppose the Grain Management Act and present an alternative saying ‘Women want to lose weight, so they don’t eat rice,’ ‘Let’s do a campaign to eat an entire bowl of rice,’ ‘Let’s tell people that rice actually has fewer calories than other food,’ then how can they possibly compete?” He said, “Things are going from bad to worse.”

PPP legislator Kim Woong also wrote on social media, “They ate fried chicken with beer at 4 p.m., had a meal together for breakfast in the school cafeteria, ate a convenience store lunch box mentioning the people’s livelihoods, and now they suggest that we all empty a bowl of rice.” He sarcastically asked, “If they are going to do politics with meokbang (eating show), then wouldn’t it be better to let Tzuyang (star of an eating show on YouTube) be the party leader?”

Her Eun-a, another PPP legislator wrote on social media, “Yesterday, Kim Jae-won bore into the people’s wounds and this morning, Cho Su-jin’s inappropriate remark has broken the hearts of farmers.” She criticized, “We have enough to worry about because of falling rice prices, yet they are blaming the diet of women and suggesting we engage in a rice-eating campaign. In which country can this be a solution to ensure the people’s livelihoods?” She continued and asked, “Is the free Republic of Korea the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea?” and “Why don’t you just tell people to make the rice bowl twice as large?” At the same time, she asked, “Is it our job to force people to take on the political responsibility of the Grain Management Act?”

The PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon met with reporters after receiving Colin Crooks, the British ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Wednesday and asked, “What kind of a solution can that be?” He said, “It should be a policy that the people can understand and accept. She probably did not mean it in that way.”

In a phone call with the Kyunghyang Shinmun Wednesday, Cho Su-jin explained, “I only mentioned the ideas that we discussed, and I was surprised to see it being mentioned along with the Grain Management Act.” She added, “If we can’t even talk about such ideas, then we shouldn’t be doing Minsaeng 119, either.”

When the controversy triggered by her remark spread, Cho wrote on social media, “Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung once started a campaign to promote rice consumption, such as making rice pizza, when he was mayor of Seongnam in 2015.” She also wrote, “I express my regret for the way people are engaging in instigation and propaganda by distorting the real intention of my introducing some ideas that came up in the Minsaeng 119 meeting.”