Last week I commented the up-coming agricultural reform in Switzerland, see http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-went-wrong-with-swiss-agricultural.html. On Wednesday, the reform was accepted by the parliament. There will not be any subsidy per animal anymore, but the subsidy will be area based. Expected impact of this policy change is to reduce the over production of milk and meat.
Clearly the farmers who have invested in modern livestock farm and who need to pay back their credit will be the looser, the low-input farmers the winners.
As a compromise, the parliament increase money that is made available to the agricultural sector. The amount of subsidy stays the same. The additional money should be made available in form of credits to allow farmers to transit in the new system. I wonder if this will really help the farmer who already has taken up a lot of credit and who is stuck in an industrialized agriculture...
Switzerland now has definitely a more sustainability oriented agricultural policy, that still provides the highest support to farmers in Europe. I am curious to see how the Swiss agricultural sector will adjust!
More info under :
http://www.tagesschau.sf.tv/Nachrichten/Archiv/2012/09/26/Schweiz/Session/Agrarpolitik-2014-17-Keine-Tierbeitraege-aber-mehr-Geld
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