Swiss Animal Protection Supports the Drinking Water Initiative

The initiative promotes ecological and small-scale farming with closed cycles, which also benefits animal welfare through smaller livestock numbers.

There is also a clear connection between animal welfare and the quality of drinking water, groundwater, and surface waters. The goals of the drinking water initiative are therefore relevant to animal protection.

The Swiss Animal Protection STS advocates for agricultural animal husbandry without factory farming. Farm management should be close to nature and strengthen biodiversity. In order to protect flora and fauna and in particular to avoid endangering fish, birds, and insects, a drastic reduction in pesticide inputs is necessary. Antibiotics are highly effective substances that are used far too frequently in current practice. Species-appropriate animal husbandry strengthens the immune systems of animals and ultimately also reduces antibiotic use.

The STS supports the intention that farms should produce feed for their animals themselves or be able to exchange it regionally. On this feed basis, nutrient cycles should be closed and domestic production capacities fully utilised. In this way, the STS aims to prevent animal production from being increasingly relocated abroad. Imports must be held to the same standards of sustainability and animal welfare.

The Swiss Animal Protection STS endorses the goals of the initiative, which addresses water quality and aims to protect the health of people, animals, and the environment.Since no counter-proposal is under consideration and these issues could not be discussed within the framework of the suspended agricultural policy AP22+, the STS endorses the initiative and calls for concrete solutions to the pesticide, antibiotic, and nutrient problems, as well as the existing enforcement issues.

Our tax money is fueling climate change. 82% of our subsidies flow into animal production and only 18% into crop farming. This way, we will never meet our climate targets. Nor will we achieve a sustainable food system.

Meat production in Switzerland is artificially inflated by 1.2 million tonnes of imported feed. This generates enormous surplus fertilizer in the form of liquid manure, dung, and ammonia, which our soils cannot absorb. Particularly problematic is  the nitrogen-containing gas ammonia, which escapes into the air when liquid manure is spread.

A reduction in meat consumption of just 12% would render additional imports unnecessary, eliminating the environmental impacts abroad. Such a reduction could be achieved solely by reducing food waste (currently 30% for beef), to which Switzerland has committed under the food security article 104a and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Ammonia leads to the acidification and over-fertilization of soils, forests, and bodies of water, endangers biodiversity and damages the climate. It also places a burden on human lungs through fine particulate matter. The ammonia limit value in Switzerland has been exceeded by 70% for decades!

The drinking water initiative is not only climate-compatible, but also plays a significant role in climate protection.

Climate researcher Thomas Stocker. 

Former CEO speaks out against agricultural initiatives

Recently, Hansuli Huber, former CEO of the Swiss Animal Protection organization (STS), expressed his views on the two agricultural initiatives in a letter to the editor as follows: “With extreme demands and one-sided attribution of blame, the initiators and supporters show a lack of respect, decency, and appreciation toward farming families.»

In the meantime, under current CEO Stefan Flückiger, the STS has taken a different direction. At least the Drinking Water Initiative has been endorsed by the umbrella organization, as it promotes an ecological and small-scale farming model with closed cycles, which — through smaller livestock populations — is also conducive to animal welfare.

The STS itself, however, is not actively participating in the referendum campaign. They want to conserve resources and focus on the factory farming initiative, whose importance for animals is the top priority, Flückiger tells the Bauernzeitung. All the more so, numerous STS sections are campaigning for the agricultural initiatives.

«No need to fear withdrawal from animal welfare programmes»

They welcome the fact that no more taxpayer money would be used for such operations. Family farms that act in accordance with animal welfare standards, keep animals in appropriate numbers, and for whom animal welfare is important, could be better supported with the freed-up «subsidy funds», in their view. And: «There is no need to fear that livestock keepers will withdraw from the existing animal welfare programmes.»

In a concrete example, they take veal farming to task. The veterinary profession holds a very different opinion. Large agricultural operations would withdraw from the direct payments system and would no longer be bound by the requirements for animal-friendly husbandry, they say. What does the STS say to this? Flückiger: «We see this differently and view the Clean Water Initiative as an opportunity for the transformation towards a more sustainable and animal welfare-oriented food system, and see fewer risks for wildlife.»

Animal welfare abroad

Even Switzerland’s largest animal welfare organisation dismisses concerns that livestock farming could increasingly be relocated abroad, making the Swiss public indirectly complicit in animal suffering in other countries. In the referendum campaign, the discussion should move in the direction of higher requirements for imports, Flückiger believes.

Progress is being made with parliamentary motions to bring the issue of declaring production methods prohibited in Switzerland back before parliament soon. «The requirements there must be significantly tightened, so that imports have to meet the same animal welfare standards as domestic products», Flückiger emphasises in conclusion.

Added value:

• STS POSITION PAPER