Our Initiative to abolish factory farming takes centre stage across Switzerland

If you take a walk around Zurich or other metropolitan areas in Switzerland today, you will likely come across our campaign posters urging as many voters as possible to say ‘yes!’ to a better future for animals. We are excited to be leading the public discourse on factory farming and driving change through our demos and debates.

On 11 July, we officially launched the campaign to a full media conference in Bern. Philipp Ryf, our co-campaign head, began the conference with a moving introduction. He was followed by representatives from our broad alliance of supporters. They all made strong arguments for the Initiative and outlined our objectives and rationale in a clear and positive way. You can watch a recording of the conference here. We are also happy to share our media kit, containing statements from our supporters. The Initiative’s launch was extensively reported on by the Swiss media, and we intend to maintain this strong momentum.

‘The initiative leads the way to a regional agriculture in Switzerland which respects the needs of the local communities and the animals, and preserves our natural resources.’ – Meret Schneider, national councillor, Green Party.

The campaign was mentioned on the EA Forum by one of our supporters. It quickly became a ‘front page’ post, and shared the results of a recent opinion poll predicting a 55% approval rate. The post gave several reasons to support our campaign, including that ‘the constitutional amendment would be binding for a whole country, including imports, not only for individual companies’, and that the decision could be ‘an inspiration for other countries, as it would be the first decision of its kind in the world.’

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our donors for their vital commitment and financial support. Our community has worked tremendously hard to reach this important threshold. Our campaign team and volunteers are working tirelessly during the final stretch to make intensive farming a thing of the past in Switzerland.