Following the journey of food backwards, it undoubtedly arrives in the fields, in agriculture. The effects of changing consumer behavior and habits reach back to the farmer. We consider the cultivated agricultural land as integral part of the habitat: it is land impacted by human beings and their built environment. This perspective requires a joint thinking of urban and rural areas, of producing and consuming areas. Politics in agriculture, besides spatial planning and building politics, is thus an area in which planning and spatial disciplines have to participate.
A central question in agricultural policy that divided minds for decades is the role of self-sufficiency and food security in Switzerland. The discussion has a long history, stretching from the food crisis during the Second World War to the actual popular initiatives on agricultural practices in June 2021.
With the «Anbauschlacht» of 1940, translated meaning «battle of land cultivation», self-sufficiency was to be secured by increasing own production, reducing livestock farming while at the same time expanding arable farming through rationing. (1)
Even if the goal of an agriculture that is self-sufficient regarding imports was never achieved, the social and ideological aspects were impressive. It was until 1980 when the official department dealing with self-sufficiency was named «Wirtschaftliche Landesverteidigung» (Economic National Defense) and later changed to «Wirtschaftliche Landesversorgung» (National Economic Supply) reflecting new threads in the neoliberal global market as the 1973 oil crisis. (2)
«Founded in the early 20th century, the Farmers‘, Tradesmen‘s and Citizens‘ Party (BGB), which changed its name to SVP in 1971, was for a long time the farmers political representative. In the early 1990s, the SVP underwent a process of transformation from a conservative centre-right to a right-wing populist party» (3) The SVP argues strongly for a preservation of a high national self-sufficiency level. (4) In 2018, self-sufficiency in animal products such as eggs, meat and dairy was 100 per cent. In contrast, self-sufficiency in plant-based foods was only 40 per cent. Overall in 2018, Switzerland produced 58 per cent of the food it consumed. (5)
This single standing number, «the magical 60%» for the SVP(4), does not include the whole truth, excluding fodder imports. Director of Agriculture Christian Hofer on the other hand argues «Switzerland has too little land to be self-sufficient. We will always be dependent on foreign countries.» (6) The foreign land, Switzerland is dependent on, known under «virtual land» is linking the question of self-sufficiency with the question of landuse, the management of a limited resource. Compulsory food stocks, managed by the private sector ensure Switzerland‘s food security. Food and agricultural products are mainly imported from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands (Fig.7). There are major differences between the import products. (7) As the example of seed imports shows, certain products are completely dependent on the global trade imports.
Besides the scale of the nation, the discussion reached the local scale with a revisioned perspective. Initiatives focusing on local supply reappropriate the term stressing out the environmental problems connected with industrial farming envisioning a new food system. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations pointed out: «Agroecology-sensitive policies and measures need to be adopted urgently to achieve emergency food relief through local and diversified food systems, which are environmentally friendly, protecting biodiversity, territorial and community food self-sufficiency and promoting seasonal products and local varieties. To address the food, health, social and economic crisis, an inclusive and responsible governance must be applied.» (8)
The history of the envisioning of these new practices go hand in hand with visions of how to live together. Utopist Hans Widmer, a central figure for Zurich «Genossenschaften» wrote already in 1983 in «Bolo’Bolo»: «…the self-sufficiency of the bolo is based on two elements: on the buildings and equipment for housing and crafts (sibi), and on a piece of land for the production of most of its food (eodu). The agricultural basis can also consist of pastures, mountains, fishing and hunting grounds, palm tree groves, algae cultures, gathering areas, etc., according to geographical conditions. The bolo is largely self-sufficient so far as the daily supply of basic food is concerned.» (9) The utopian ideas evolved over the years and various «Genossenschaften» implemented ideas of living aswell as farming in community supported agriculture systems called «Solawi».
(1) - Tanner, Albert: "Anbauschlacht", in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS), Version vom 07.01.2021. Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
(2) - Geschichte der wirtschaftlichen Landesversorgung seit Gründung des Bundesstaates, 2011, BWL Bundesamt für wirtschaftliche Landesversorgung, Maurice Cottier
PDF
(3) - Skenderovic, Damir: "Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP)", in: _Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS)_, Version vom 20.03.2017. Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
(4)
Keine Perspektive für die nachhaltige Ernährungssicherung der Schweiz, 27. Juli 2020, Martin Haab, Nationalrat, Mettmenstetten Online: SVP.ch
(5) - Agrarbericht 2020, BWL Bundesamt für wirtschaftliche Landesversorgung -
agrarbericht.ch
(6)
«Wir werden immer vom Ausland abhängen» Interview with Christian Hofer, BWL, Neue Zürcher Zeitung 18.05.2020 p.9 / Schweiz
(7)
Eidgenössische Zollverwaltung EZV -
SwissImpex
(8)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, visited 27.04.2021.
http://www.fao.org/agroecology/slideshow/news-article/en/c/1268313/
(9)
P.M. Bolo’bolo. Zürich: Paranoïa City, 1985. Print. p.38
