Switzerland’s farmers have a powerful lobby in parliament, normally giving them the upper hand when important issues are decided at the ballot box. Still, many Swiss farmers are at the end of their tether. As we reported in the last edition, they feel powerless and unappreciated. There was a lively response to the article from our readers.
Working too much for too little is one thing. Farmers also have too much red tape to negotiate and barely any free time. Then you have crop thieves. Or poor weather making work more difficult and destroying the harvest. Few people know how it feels to work every single day of every year. Farming is no laughing matter these days. Alas, it’s all about the survival of the fittest – and money.
Because Swiss-farmed produce is so expensive, many people have no option but to buy cheaper imported produce from their supermarket. Remember that many people are barely able to make ends meet in Switzerland either. From healthcare, to housing, to food – everything is becoming more expensive. Farmers moaning about their situation won’t help anyone.
There is no such thing as ‘the farmers’. You have the multinationals, then medium and small farmers. The multinationals are the beneficiaries. They have the biggest lobbies in parliament, helping them to generate the biggest possible profit. Naturally, this attracts even more money from investors around the world. These multinationals also include the big retailers and the chemical giants.
This was a good article offering food for thought and debate.
You wrote that “intensive agriculture leads to nitrogen run-off into groundwater and drinking water, and harms biodiversity through its reliance on pesticides”. Of course, but there is another big problem. No one has found an alternative to pesticides. Organic farming is declining because it is too expensive. And it also involves questionable products.
Agriculture is about economies of scale. Bigger farms are more likely to survive. The Swiss Farmers’ Union knows and supports this. Do the powers that be actually want to ensure that all farms survive?
The money for farming subsidies comes out of people’s taxes, i.e. consumers have to pay even more for the produce they buy. The profits go to the middlemen, whose profit margins are sizeable to put it mildly. Farmers, meanwhile, are saddled with debt to pay for their oversized equipment. The market is distorted to feed the capitalist machine. Someone needs to go around with a chainsaw to stop the exploitation and make everything more transparent in terms of the actual costs involved.
I’m a Swiss living in France, we always read your magazine with interest. As the ex-principal of a school in the canton of Berne and ex-manager of the Centre de bilans in Tramelan, I wanted to share my opinion on this OASI men/women issue on your discussion page.
First point: equal work/equal pay.
Second point: if there are no children, the retirement age must be the same for women as for men. If there are children, a bonus must enable mothers, depending on number of children, to retire early.
Third point: whether married or not, everyone must receive a pension commensurate to their contributions!
Nowadays, many young opt to cohabit with their pet dog... no need to reward them for it.
Comments