In 2025, we are letting the pigs out! š·
Thatās right: in 2025, we are launching a new federal popular initiative demanding outdoor access for all animals in agriculture. This initiative is our most ambitious project to date and has the potential to shape the discourse in Switzerland for years to come. Additionally, we are planning a Conference for Animals, during which we shall present a groundbreaking position paper to the media on animal-friendly and sustainable agriculture. To implement our projects for the upcoming year, we need your support.
Preparations for our next major projects have been in full swing for months. It is high time to tell you more about our plans for the coming year. After a challenging year of 2024 in many respects, we are ready to hit the ground running in the new year. In 2025, we will launch two groundbreaking projects to give animals greater visibility:
A Conference for Animals
The idea of building an Alliance for Animals has been a focus for some time and initially began as a follow-up to the 2022 initiative against factory farming. Together with the organisations that supported that initiative, we decided in 2023 to pursue a long-term collaboration for the benefit of animals in agriculture.
To structure this alliance work sustainably, we plan to develop a shared charter in the coming year, outlining our vision for an animal-friendly and future-proof agricultural system. This will also involve finding and documenting the greatest common denominators amongst the various organisations.
We are convinced that 95% of the journey is shared. Whether we ultimately envision agriculture entirely without animals, or with animals grazing freely in pastures is secondary given todayās conditions. What is clear is that the current system needs fundamental change.
To ensure that the charter does not simply sit in a drawer, we plan to present it at the Conference for Animals to the press and to stakeholders from agriculture, politics and retail. The conference will also serve as a platform for experts to find solutions collaboratively to the gridlock in agriculture.
A conference of this nature is long overdue, as the interests of animals have increasingly faded into the background since our initiative to abolish factory farming in Switzerland. In the current parliament, animals have no voice whatsoever. Despite the supposedly ambitious federal climate strategy, virtually nothing is happening in agriculture.
We are excited to share more about the planned conference with you soon.
Outdoor Access for All Animals
According to federal statistics, 78% of animals in Swiss agriculture already have outdoor access. Sounds good, right? Yet, of course, this number is misleading. It relies on two extremely deceptive tricks that obscure the true conditions in Swiss agriculture:
- Animals are counted on a specific reference day. Chickens, pigs, cows and calves that live only for a few months fall through the cracks of this sneaky statistic. This is particularly outrageous because these animals rarely, if ever, have outdoor access.
- Animals are counted as ālivestock unitsā. For example, six pigs or 250 broilers chickens are equated to one cow. A farmer with 500 broiler chickens without outdoor access and two cows grazing in a meadow would officially be counted as providing outdoor access to 50% of their animals.So werden etwa 6 Schweine oder 250 MasthĆ¼hner einer Kuh gleichgesetzt.
These ātricksā are cynical. In reality, only 13% of animals in Switzerland have access to the outdoors. The still widespread belief that animals in āgrassland Switzerlandā mostly go outside is nothing more than an illusion.
Our new initiative aims to address this: all animals in Swiss agriculture should have outdoor access. The demand is as simple as it is compelling, with significant positive effects on the health and well-being of animals.
The environment would also benefit. Keeping animals outdoors more often would not only align with Switzerlandās self-image, but it would also eliminate the need for importing a million tons of animal feed annually.
We are in discussions with several organisations to share responsibility for this initiative from the outset. We have also already come up with creative ideas to give the initiative fresh momentum in agricultural politics, and potentially bridge old divides.
To implement our plans for the new year, we urgently need additional financial resources. As part of our Matching Challenge, you have until the end of December to double your donation with the help of generous contributors. Thank you!
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