farmers receive subsidies but then use the funds to buy things like seed, fertiliser, feed and equipment – from agricultural giant Fenaco, for example. Hence, Fenaco also benefits from the farming subsidy system in its supply role. The prices at which farmers sell to distributors or to supermarkets like Migros and Coop are, on the other hand, too low – and farms are forced to offset the shortfall with state funds earmarked for fulfilling environmental obligations. Some of the more critical members of the farming lobby have identified the problematic role played by agribusiness and the supermarkets. One of them is Kilian Baumann, National Councillor for the Green Party and head of the national association of smallholder farmers, who often takes a different view to that of the SFU. Baumann laments the low prices and mounting bureaucracy – but he also criticises “decades of misguided farming policy” for which the SFU bears some responsibility. The imperative – encouraged by the state – to produce more and to farm Farmers are losing more and more hours to paperwork – time they could have otherwise spent farming. Even the SFU, the political force behind the multi-billion bankrolling of the agricultural sector, concedes that the financial support has spawned a mountain of bureaucracy that urgently needs to be trimmed. The federal acts and ordinances on funding run up to several thousands of pages. Approval and monitoring take an enormous amount of time. At the mercy of suppliers and buyers The loss in efficiency is obvious, but government funding continues to increase as more and more farms go under. What is going wrong? And why is Switzerland unable to achieve its goal of getting domestic production to cover more than 50 per cent of the country’s food needs? Patrick Dümmler, an economist at the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse, makes the important point that farmers are too dependent on subsidies. Essentially, he believes that there is too much money in the system as opposed to not enough. According to Dümmler, farmers are unfortunately at the mercy of suppliers and buyers. He says that The Federal government is channelling more and more money through fewer and fewer farmers. In spite of this, their economic outlook is growing ever bleaker – and Switzerland’s self-sufficiency targets are not being met. bigger and more intensively is a failed doctrine, he writes, adding that intensive agriculture leads to nitrogen runoff into groundwater and drinking water, and harms biodiversity through its reliance on pesticides. According to Baumann, farmers cannot blame their problems on new green legislation. On the contrary, environmental standards are urgently needed. Food production is subject to market forces. The Swiss state is addressing the environmental question, while subsidies are funding measures to correct the “wrongs” of the market. These are the decidedly muddy waters in which Swiss farmers find themselves. And they feel powerless to do anything about it – despite the powerful farming lobby. “We will reassess in autumn,” says Haslebacher. If nothing improves, he and his colleagues will be back out on their tractors. The next protest could take them all the way to the Bundesplatz in Berne. Alongside farmers, subsidies also benefit fertiliser and feed manufacturers as well as retailers. Photos: Keystone Intensive farming is highly mechanised and is a failed doctrine, according to Green agricultural politicians. Photo: Keystone Swiss Review / July 2024 / No.4 7
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYwNzMx