Swiss Review 2/2021

Swiss Review / April 2021 / No.2 14 STÉPHANE HERZOG On this Januarymorning, theHeinrich family farmis in the shade. Marcel and his wife Sabina are counting the days until the sun returns. Only one week left to wait. Welcome to Las Sorts, a hamlet in the Albula valley, perched at an altitude of 1,000 metres, not far from the famous Landwasser railway viaduct. The Las Sorts farm – the name means “destiny” in Romansh– is sim- ilar tomany of the holdings inGrisons. The transition to organic began through milk sales, thanks to pas- tures free from synthetic fertilizers. “My father was one of the first farmers to take this step in the valley,” recalls Marcel, who started out working as a woodsman. The move was not a sim- ple one. To start with, the milk pro- duced by these pioneers of the organic sector went unnoticed. But then, in the 1990s the retail giant Coop began to contact cheese dairies in search of organic produce. “As thismilk sells for a better price and the nature of the farming is already close to being or- ganic, a lot of farmers make that tran- sition,” explains Claudio Gregori, President of Bio Grisons. “The open-mindedness of the farmers in Grisons contributed to this develop- ment,” adds Martin Roth, advisor at the canton’s agricultural training cen- tre. The leading product at Las Sorts is the mountain potato. Every year, the Heinrich family produces almost 70 tonnes of potatoes, of over 40 varie- ties, ranging from the black Vitelotte potato, red in colour and with a taste of chestnuts, to the delicate Belgian variety, the Corne de Gatte. This cul- tivation requires a lot of manual la- bour on small plots, where crops are grown in rotation. “It’s a demanding choice, which leads to an understand- ing of the cycles of nature. In the or- ganic sector, we see things it would be impossible to spot sat atop a tractor,” explains Marcel. Just at that moment, a fox appears in front of the house, provoking a slight panic because of the chicken coop. The valley also has wolves. “We sometimes hear them howling near the farm and we find deer carcasses, but they haven’t caused us any problems so far,” Marcel assures us. The mountain potato: a niche productt In these high lands, where the ground is mown late, the organic farmers have to create niche products and show a knack for marketing. For ex- ample, the Heinrich family partici- pated in the launch of a potato acad- emy, which brings together fans of rare varieties. “Organic potatoes have a very distinctive taste. Chefs tell me that they are four times more nutri- tious than a conventionally grown po- tato,” enthuses Marcel, who counts among his clients Michelin-starred chefs such as Sven Wassmer in Bad Ragaz and Heiko Nieder in Zurich. The famer likes to share his knowl- edge, but is not out to convert every- one to organic farming. His latest pro- ject is the cultivation of an ancient variety of beans, launched with the help of the association Pro Specie Rara. The operation has taken five years of trials. In 2020, the harvest of these beans, which canwithstand the cold weather, came to 1,500 kilo- grams. At Las Sorts, approximately 65 per- cent of the revenue is generated through direct sales. The rest comes from subsidies from the Confedera- tion, where what counts is the num- ber of hectares. “The proportion of our revenue that comes from sales is high for a mountain region,” states Marcel. He has stopped selling to major dis- tributors, a system that he considers “precarious, andwhich leaves farmers with their hands tied”. We leave the convivial warmth of the Heinrich home, its stove with bundles of wood piled up in the bathroom, and head for Filisur. The decision to slaughter calves on the farm Further north, wemeet Georg Blunier and his wife Claudia. Their farm, leased from another farmer, offers a magnificent view of the Rhine. The cold is biting and the sun burns your eyes.Welcome toDusch, situated at an altitude of 850 metres. The couple be- gan their life together living in a town, but after spending two summers in al- pine pastures in the cantons of Valais and Grisons, they decided to take the plunge into farming. Georg Blunier worked as a graphist and artist in Biel. Now, here he is with his feet caked in mud, working 70-hour week after 70- hourweek. “With art, you create prob- lems to find solutions. In farming, you follow the rhythmnature imposes on you and you see the tangible results of your work,” he says. The Dusch farm- ers, who have cultivated their land or- ganically since 1989, grow cereals and How Grisons became the Swiss champion of the organic sector Over 65 percent of farming in the canton of Grisons is organic. A Swiss record. Mountain agriculture and tourism have sped up the transition. Going organic is both ideologically and economically motivated. Higher, further, faster, more beautiful? In search of the some- what different Swiss records. This edition: The canton with the highest proportion of organic farmers. Report e tremes Swiss