Federal Initiative to abolish factory farming in Switzerland

Sentience launched the initiative to abolish factory farming in 2016. The initiative demands better living conditions for animals in agriculture. Industrial-scale animal husbandry in farming enterprises that aim to produce animal products as efficiently as possible, and in which the welfare of the animals is systematically abused, should no longer be permissible in Switzerland. In addition,we want to see a ban on imported products that do not meet our proposed standards.

Our arguments are hinged on the immense suffering experienced by animals on factory farms. Yet, factory farming is a problem with many more repercussions. Numerous scientific studies show how industrial animal husbandry is disastrous for the environment and detrimental to our health. In particular, the sheer volume of antibiotics used on intensively farmed animals is a serious security threat. It is a consequence of packing large numbers of animals into small spaces. This is to say nothing of the horrendous working conditions of people whose job involves killing animals all day, every day. We believe animal agriculture is one of the defining problems of our time, and it is an issue whose time has come.