«Food Initiative»

1. Geneva✗ No majority, Yes share 37.4%, Turnout 44%
2. Basel-Stadt ½✗ No majority, Yes share 36.8%, Turnout 50%
3. Neuchâtel✗ No majority, Yes share 34.5%, Turnout 40%
4. Ticino✗ No majority, Yes share 31.2%, Turnout 46%
5. Jura✗ No majority, Yes share 29.6%, Turnout 39%
6. Schaffhausen✗ No majority, Yes share 29.6%, Turnout 68%
7. Zurich✗ No majority, Yes share 29.3%, Turnout 48%
8. Fribourg✗ No majority, Yes share 28.3%, Turnout 42%
9. Bern✗ No majority, Yes share 28.2%, Turnout 47%
10. Basel-Landschaft ½✗ No majority, Yes share 26.5%, Turnout 43%
11. Vaud✗ No majority, Yes share 25.8%, Turnout 49%
12. Solothurn✗ No majority, Yes share 25.8%, Turnout 45%
13. Lucerne✗ No majority, Yes share 25.7%, Turnout 50%
14. Appenzell Ausserrhoden ½✗ No majority, Yes share 25.3%, Turnout 53%
15. Glarus✗ No majority, Yes share 25.2%, Turnout 42%
16. Aargau✗ No majority, Yes share 25.2%, Turnout 45%
17. Graubünden✗ No majority, Yes share 25.0%, Turnout 46%
18. Valais✗ No majority, Yes share 24.5%, Turnout 43%
19. Thurgau✗ No majority, Yes share 24.3%, Turnout 48%
20. St. Gallen✗ No majority, Yes share 24.1%, Turnout 48%
21. Zug✗ No majority, Yes share 23.5%, Turnout 55%
22. Nidwalden ½✗ No majority, Yes share 20.1%, Turnout 52%
23. Obwalden ½✗ No majority, Yes share 19.7%, Turnout 52%
24. Appenzell Innerrhoden ½✗ No majority, Yes share 19.7%, Turnout 48%
25. Uri✗ No majority, Yes share 19.2%, Turnout 43%
26. Schwyz✗ No majority, Yes share 19.0%, Turnout 53%

✓ Yes majority · ✗ No majority · Turnout %
½ half canton: counts half towards the majority of the cantons.

Sources: Federal Statistical Office (FSO); older votes: Swissvotes, Année Politique Suisse, University of Bern; map base: FSO, GEOSTAT

Cantons by their majority language: Fribourg and Valais count as French-speaking, Bern and Graubünden as German-speaking.

Yes or no?

What exactly is it about?

Swiss agriculture today produces a little less than half of the food consumed in Switzerland. The rest comes from abroad. The Federal Constitution already requires the Confederation to create the conditions for a sufficient food supply. Farming must also meet rules that protect the environment, biodiversity and drinking water. The Food Initiative is a popular initiative. It wants to change the Constitution. The Confederation must aim for a net self-sufficiency rate of at least 70 per cent. This figure shows what share of the food consumed in Switzerland is also produced in Switzerland, measured in calories. It takes into account that part of the animal products come from imported animal feed. Today the figure averages 45 per cent. To reach it, the Confederation must promote a diet based more on plant-based foods and steer agriculture and the food industry accordingly. Clean drinking water is expressly part of the food to which people must have access. The initiative also requires that the maximum values for nitrogen compounds and phosphorus, set since 2008 as environmental targets for agriculture, are no longer exceeded. The requirements are to be met within ten years. The Confederation supports the necessary changes financially. To be accepted, the initiative needs a majority of the voters and a majority of the cantons (double majority). The Federal Council and Parliament recommend a no.

What is disputed?

The initiative committee argues that Switzerland is 58 per cent dependent on other countries, and that agriculture is not set up to feed the population from its own soil in a crisis. It says 75 per cent of the 3.6 billion francs in farm subsidies support animal production; more plant-based food and a self-sufficiency rate of 70 per cent would secure supply and bring farmers new markets. In the committee's view, over-fertilisation burdens soil and water, the maximum values of the environmental targets are exceeded, and drinking water is not protected enough. The Federal Council and Parliament consider that the initiative goes too far and wants too much in too little time; 70 per cent in ten years is hardly achievable, and people would have to eat clearly more plant-based and less animal-based food. They say the state would have to intervene massively in production and consumption through rules; this would cause high costs for the Confederation, also because the initiative provides for financial support, and would limit consumers' freedom of choice. They add that the Federal Council is already developing agricultural policy in the direction requested, in steps, with the aim of at least 50 per cent self-sufficiency by 2050.

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