4 CHRISTOF FORSTER When the nights draw in and the temperatures drop, Switzerland likes to fall back on hearty fare like rösti, raclette and fondue. The basic ingredients for these classics – milk and potatoes – are staples that have been sourced and eaten in our own country since time immemorial. Swiss-produced vegan cheese alternatives are now a viable option too. Indeed, modern diets are now considerably more diverse than they used to be. Farmers still help to put food on our plates but trying to understand the money and trade flows that make Swiss agriculture tick means grappling with a dizzying array of figures. Besides our own personal preferences, it is a complicated web of direct transactions, subsidies, tariffs, import quotas, and a great deal more that dictates what we eat. Here are five questions (and answers) to make sense of it all. 1 Could Switzerland potentially be able to produce all the food it needs? A 2025 study co-written by ETH Zurich agricultural ecologist Andreas Bosshard says yes. This conclusion surprised Bosshard himself. He and his co-authors think Switzerland could become completely self-sufficient. It could even produce enough food for over 10 million people, compared to 4.2 million today. Switzerland’s net self-sufficiency rate is currently around 50 per cent, or 57 per cent if you take imported animal feed into account. The initiative “for food security” (Food Security Initiative) wants Switzerland to hit 70 per cent. Can Switzerland produce more of what its people eat? And other questions Few countries support their farmers as much as Switzerland, which produces around half of all the food calories its population consumes. The Food Security Initiative, due to be put to voters on 27 September 2026, aims to push this level of self-sufficiency much higher. Bosshard suggests nine measures that could be implemented without major monetary investment, the most important of which concerns livestock feed. Cattle should only graze on grass and not be fed concentrates and maize. Switzerland now devotes 60 per cent of its arable land to growing animal feed, while also importing concentrate feed. If cows fed on grass alone, this would free up large swathes of land to grow food for humans. Although it would lead to lower milk yields, demand would still be met given current levels of overproduction, the study says. Food waste is another factor. By halving it, Switzerland could feed 1.8 million more people. We should also return to the practice of feeding food waste safely to pigs, not least because of the positive environmental effects, as it would help us to reach our carbon and ammonia reduction targets. Yet the Swiss Farmers’ Union believes that full food self-sufficiency is completely unrealistic. During the Second World War, when only four million people lived in Switzerland and more agricultural land was available, self-sufficiency was around 70 per cent despite rationing, it argues. According to an ETH Zurich study, Switzerland could potentially produce enough food to feed over 10 million people. Swiss Review / July 2026 / No. 3 4 Focus
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