Mehmet Mehdi Eker is a Turkish politician who served as the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

from 2005 until 2015. He was elected a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for the

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortres ...

for Democratic People's Party in 2002. He was re-elected in 2007 and 2011 for the Justice and Development Party (AKP). He was again elected as an MP in 2018. A veterinarian and agro-economist he had a career as a civil servant in the ministry of agriculture before entering politics at the age of 46. As minister of Agriculture he has had to deal with issues including: * The bird flu epidemic of 2005, in which he made a statement that it was safe to eat cooked chicken and then famously refused to do so on television. * Adjusting food control regulations to comply with EU norms, including recategorising pork and

horse meat Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Eurasia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume about 4.3 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existen ...

as suitable for human consumption.Milliyet İnternet - Ekonomi
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eker, Mehmet Mehdi Living people Government ministers of Turkey Turkish Kurdish politicians Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class Deputies of Diyarbakır Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 22nd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey 1956 births Members of the 60th government of Turkey