Swiss agriculture -

Awareness of the environment has generally increased during the last couple of years, and has not failed to have an effect on agriculture. Farmers continuously face new demands requiring a more ecological approach to agriculture. This demand puts the farmers in a quandary: consumers ask for cheap foodstuffs, yet they require products to be produced in an ecological and animal-friendly manner. Furthermore, the taxpayer demands that state money ear-marked for agriculture be reserved to those farmers who produce as environmentally-friendly as possible. However, ecological production is not necessarily economically competitive. Therefore, a price has to be paid. Farmers seek to find a balance between economic viability and ecology.

Today, ecology is a material component of the primary and continuing education of farmers. The general rule is to produce with less dependence upon chemical fertilisers, pesticides or concentrated feed, and thus reverting to an extensive agriculture. Switzerland was one of the pioneers in the field of environmentally-friendly production methods in agriculture and remains a leading example for other countries.