Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern!
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Tuesday, exactly 31 years after around 500,000 women went on strike, demonstrating for their rights. On June 14, 2019, hundreds of thousands of women returned to the streets, complaining that progress was taking too long. Various events are also taking place around the country today, demanding better pensions for women.
In the news: The Rolling Stones concert, which had been set to take place in Bern on Friday, has been postponed to an unknown date after singer Mick Jagger tested positive for Covid-19.
- The British band’s management said Jagger, 78, was feeling good under the circumstancesExternal link and that he really wanted to play in the Swiss capital. The last time the Stones rolled to Bern was in 1973 (pictured).
- Four people suspected of supporting the Islamic State terror organisation have been arrested in a joint operation by Swiss and German justice authorities. Three suspects were detained and several buildings searched in central and eastern Switzerland. The fourth was detained in neighbouring Germany.
- Parliament has exonerated Interior Minister Alain Berset of abusing state resources to handle an attempt by a citizen to blackmail him. It said Berset was justified in using an official car to return from a private visit to Germany and that the hotel expenses were paid by him. The blackmail attempt happened in November 2019; in September 2020 Berset issued a criminal complaint against his alleged former lover.
The average Swiss eats 7.5kg-8kg of fish a year – almost all of it imported. Preventing overfishing and the degradation of marine environments is one of the reasons Swiss multinationals and start-ups are getting interested in the alternative seafood market.
When it comes to food, Switzerland has a solid sense of adventure. Tradition made the country synonymous with cheese and chocolate, but it was also the first place in Europe to approve insect-derived products and punches above its weight on food science and technology innovation. Plant-based dairy and meat alternatives are already a hit with Swiss consumers. Overall, Switzerland is an ideal testing ground for consumer interest and sales: novel food market regulations are looser than in the European Union and the public are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their consumption habits.
“[Switzerland] is a nice market to go test on a smaller scale, get feedback from consumers, and tweak the product as needed before launching throughout the rest of Europe,” says food-tech entrepreneur Brittany Chibe, who with Anne Palermo founded Aqua Cultured Foods, which develops spongy, seafood-like fungi. Their alt-seafood experiments in Chicago quickly gained attention in Switzerland, with their company being approached by Zurich’s Kickstart Innovation programme, which culminated in a partnership with Migros, Switzerland’s largest retailer.
In the United States, about 40% of the population considers themselves flexitarians or actively looking to reduce their meet and seafood consumption, even it is just once a week. According to Coop’s Plant-Based Food Report 2021, about 40% of the Swiss population of 8.7 million would like to eat plant-based alternatives more often in the next five years. “Those are really the consumers we’re hoping to attract,” Chibe says. “People who are curious about alternative proteins and are looking to push down their meat consumption, whether it is for ethical or environmental reasons.”
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