Groundwater contaminated with TFA throughout Switzerland
Groundwater is contaminated with TFA throughout Switzerland. The chemical is considered harmful to health and enters the groundwater through pesticides. Swiss agriculture uses 2,000 tonnes of pesticides annually.
30 years ago, the federal government introduced the new complementary and ecological direct payments.
Today, direct payments represent a financial volume of around 2.8 billion francs per year and, alongside border protection, are the most important instrument of Swiss agricultural policy.
TFA in groundwater: Nationwide contamination
Yet the balance sheet of the annual billion-franc payments is devastating, as a current report by the Federal Office for the Environment also shows: our groundwater is contaminated with the chemical TFA across the board. 80% of our drinking water comes from groundwater.
TFA (trifluoroacetate) is considered harmful to health and enters groundwater through the application of pesticides. Currently, 29 pesticides are approved in Switzerland that produce TFA, including flufenacet. This herbicide has been classified by the European food safety authority as harmful to reproduction and as an endocrine disruptor for humans and the environment. The EU Commission therefore intends to ban TFA-forming pesticides. In Switzerland, there are no TFA limit values for groundwater and drinking water. Only at the end of October were further pesticides containing flufenacet approved for agricultural use.
Federal Council ignores drinking water issue
At the press conference on the initiative «For safe food – by strengthening sustainable domestic production, more plant-based foods and clean drinking water», the Federal Council did not mention with a single word the far-reaching harmful consequences of current agricultural policy for our drinking water security, and rejected our initiative without a counter-proposal.
Agricultural policy over the past 30 years shows us:
It is needed now more than ever – the initiative «For a secure food supply – by strengthening sustainable domestic production, more plant-based foods and clean drinking water» – the powerful voice of the people!
The initiative is expected to go to a vote in 2027.
Sustainable alternatives instead of pesticides
To ensure a secure supply of food and clean drinking water for the Swiss population, we need, in addition to more plant-based instead of animal-based foods, sustainable cultivation systems such as mixed cropping, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture. These replace pesticides with high soil fertility and biodiversity and thus ensure higher yields and clean drinking water through natural plant protection.
