Mehmet Mehdi Eker
Mehmet Mehdi Eker is a Turkish politician who served as the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey from 2005 until 2015. He was elected a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Diyarbakır for Democratic People's Party in 2002. He was re-elected in 2007 and 2011 for the Justice and Development Party. 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 as suitable for human consumption.
