Swiss initiative challenges use of fields for animal feed

Switzerland’s food initiative calls for the country to raise its net self-sufficiency rate to 70 percent within 10 years, prompting a debate over whether farmland should produce food for people or feed for animals, SRF reports. The initiative will be put to a vote on September 27.

Switzerland’s current net self-sufficiency rate is about 45 percent. It last reached 70 percent during the Second World War, when the country launched a wartime cultivation campaign and even planted potatoes in front of the parliament building and on Zurich’s Sechseläutenplatz.

The Swiss Farmers’ Union opposes the initiative. Its president, Markus Ritter, calls the 70 percent target unrealistic. He said the rate had not been that high for 80 years and noted that Switzerland once had 4.5 million residents and 200,000 more hectares of farmland than it does today.

Ritter said increasing self-sufficiency would require more fertiliser and pesticides, as well as much less land devoted to biodiversity promotion. He also defended using arable land to grow animal feed, saying this was important for crop rotation, soil health and pest control.

According to the initiative’s critics, 60 percent of Switzerland’s arable land is used to produce animal feed, mainly temporary grassland, feed grain and silage or green maize. The total area of arable land has declined only slightly since the beginning of the millennium, but grain production has fallen sharply. Farmers are growing less both feed grain for livestock and bread grain for human consumption.

Organic farmer Gertrud Häseli disagrees with Ritter’s position. She said Switzerland could grow more lentils, vegetables and grain for human consumption by planting less maize for animal feed.

Häseli, who keeps 10 mother cows with calves, also criticised excess manure in livestock farming, saying it produces too much methane and phosphorus. She believes many people would change their diets if they knew where meat came from and how it was produced.

Ritter, who has handed his farm to his sons and keeps 37 dairy cows, said eggs, milk and meat remained popular and that people wanted a balanced diet.

The Swiss Farmers’ Union is campaigning against the initiative. Bio Suisse and the Small Farmers’ Association have not issued voting recommendations, while the fruit growers’ association, the grain producers’ association and the potato producers’ association oppose it. Individual farmers support the proposal.

A yes vote would have major consequences for Swiss agriculture and what it produces, regardless of what consumers choose to buy and eat.