In Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township lives an old man called Tsai Te who is 81 years old this year. On Feb. 9 he was peeling carrots and drying them in the sun by the road. Carrots that are harvested and then left in the fields by farmers are usually of poor quality and used as supplementary feed for cows, sheep and geese. When Tsai saw a reporter approaching, he got into a panic and said emphatically, “I did not steal these carrots.” The carrots were discarded by farmers in their fields and he picked them up to make extra food for his family, he explained.
Tsai said his second son is at the final stage of oral cancer. The monthly low-income subsidy of NT$7,500 and elderly-farmer subsidy of NT$7,000 are the only sources of finance they have, but that is not enough to pay for the medical bills, transportation and nutritional supplements for his son and the cost of living for the entire family of six members.
Tsai said he and his wife have not been able to earn a living since long ago. They have lived a poverty-stricken life. Often, kind people would come to give them rice, but that was not enough for everyone at home, so he picks up carrots, peels them, dries them and stores them so that they can be cooked with rice to feed the whole family.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Ethan Zhan)
Photo: Cheng Hsu-kai, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者鄭旭凱
麥寮鄉老翁蔡德今年已八十一歲，二月九日他在路旁刨紅蘿蔔籤、曬乾，由於農民採收後棄置田間的劣質紅蘿蔔多數做為牛、羊或鵝隻的補充飼料，發現記者到來，蔡德驚慌地強調：「紅蘿蔔不是偷的！」是農民棄置田裡、他撿來的，要做家人的補充食品。
他說，次子口腔癌末期，家中靠每月七千五百元的低收入生活補助和七千元老農津貼過活，但根本不足以支應醫療、交通費、兒子營養補充品與一家六口生活費。
蔡德說，他們老夫婦早就無力謀生，生活相當拮据，常有善心人捐贈白米，但常不夠吃，只好撿紅蘿蔔刨籤曬乾儲存，加入白米後煮飯吃。
（自由時報記者鄭旭凱）
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