Let us stop the SVP's destructive rage

Federal Councillor Albert Rösti has once again demonstrated that he is incapable of making competent decisions on technically demanding issues.

He is an anti-climate and anti-nature protectionist, writes republik.ch.

And farmers' president Markus Ritter, who bears co-responsibility for these disgraceful acts, still wants more — unfortunately not what common sense would dictate.

This very SVP bears significant co-responsibility for the fact that, for example, around 84 million livestock in 2022 were slaughtered in Switzerland. That is 7 million animals every month, 230,500 per day, 9,600 per hour, 160 per minute and 2.7 every second! These are the same people who loudly and vulgarly complain whenever wolves kill livestock in mostly unprotected herds. Last year: 1,706 animals.

The agricultural sector that produces these mountains of meat is enormously harmful to the climate. It causes well over half of the methane emissions from agriculture as a whole, which itself accounts for around 12.4 percent of Switzerland's greenhouse gases. The cultivation of animal feed also occupies around 60% of agricultural land in this country, while an additional 1.2 million tonnes of feed are imported per year, writes der Beobachter on 19 May 2023.

The fact that more and more animals are killed for meat year after year is an ongoing ethical catastrophe. No other animal welfare problem affects so many animals.

Through speciesism, animals are devalued solely on the basis of their species membership. This creates the basis for sentient beings to be exploited, tortured and killed for human purposes as a matter of course. Speciesism and racism go hand in hand.

• 82% of agricultural subsidies flow into the production of animal-based foods, with only 18% going to crop farming.
• The federal government invests 6 million francs of taxpayers' money annually in meat advertising.
• 1.2 million tonnes of feed are imported annually. This requires arable land equal in size to the entire Swiss arable land area.
• 60% of Swiss arable land is used to grow animal feed.
• The environmental targets for agriculture set by the federal government have been continuously missed for over 10 years.
• Since 2017, we have had a food security article in the constitution.Nevertheless, we are still 50% dependent on foreign countries.

When comparing tradespeople with farmers, the conclusion is that farmers are a marginal phenomenon and insignificant to the Swiss economy. Agriculture and forestry employ only 3.1 percent of all working people in Switzerland. They generate 0.7 percent of the country's total economic output. Yet they receive 3 billion in compensation payments.

The city dweller

Every city dweller, with or without a family, living in a cramped rental apartment with a 42-hour working week, rubs their eyes when driving through the countryside or into the mountains. Large, state-of-the-art farmhouses with solar panels on the roofs, expensive vehicle fleets — and yet one constantly hears the residents of these houses complaining.

At the same time, hardly a week goes by without one of these SVP politicians running into trouble with the law and ending up in the media.

The wolf

In the media, city dwellers also read about SVP voters' fears of the wolf. “People no longer dare to leave the house, let alone take children into the forest,” cry hobby sheep farmers, livestock farmers, and hobby hunters in the media.

Last year, 1,706 grazing animals were killed by wolves in Switzerland — most of them in an unprotected environment! Those responsible for this failure to implement herd protection can be identified — and it is certainly not the wolf. One must adapt to nature, not the other way around.

Switzerland has far too many livestock animals that are exploited, mistreated, and mutilated. Because of these livestock, the entire country is disfigured with fences, which massively disrupts the habitat of wildlife and people.

Where the wolf hunts, the forest grows and so does biodiversity.