‘Switzerland will be dependent on imports until the end of 2024’
According to the Swiss Farmers' Union, "from a statistical point of view, from Tuesday onwards, Switzerland will rely solely on imports until the end of the year".
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Français
fr
USP: “la Suisse ne se nourrira que d’importations jusqu’à fin 2024”
Original
The Swiss Farmers’ Union claims, “domestic agriculture produces only 52% of the food needed by the population”.
The “gross self-sufficiency rate” has been steadily declining in recent years, the Swiss Farmers’ Union continues. From a statistical point of view, Switzerland’s self-sufficiency will come to an end on Tuesday.
Until the end of the year, the Swiss population will be dependent on imported foodstuffs. This makes Switzerland one of the world’s biggest net importers, according to the Swiss Farmers’ Union.
The farmers’ umbrella organisation draws comparisons with Germany, which is said to have a self-sufficiency rate of 88% and can therefore make do with domestic produce until November 1. France, on the other hand, produces enough food to meet the needs of its entire population.
However, writes the Swiss Farmers’ Union, food production abroad has a greater ecological impact than in Switzerland. “According to a report by the Federal Office for the Environment, 75% of the ecological footprint associated with consumption in Switzerland is generated abroad.
“The less we produce at home and the more we import, the greater our impact on the planet”, insists the umbrella organisation. “Protecting our production areas and indigenous agriculture is therefore important not only for food security, but also for global environmental reasons”.
Translated from German by DeepL/amva
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch
Popular Stories
More
Foreign affairs
Go to war or stay put? Ukrainian men in Switzerland face fresh dilemmas
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
This content was published on
A hacker attack has paralysed the OneLog connection platform, compromising the ability of people to access many Swiss media titles.
Ex-Swiss rail catering boss handed three year jail term for fraud
This content was published on
Former head of Elvetino, the catering unit of Swiss Federal Railways, has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for fraud.
Climeworks signs contract with Morgan Stanley to remove CO2
This content was published on
Climeworks, the specialist in the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) has signed a contract with banking giant Morgan Stanley.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.