Added value through ecology

There is a persistent narrative in the political debate that (agro-)ecological farming methods are economically disadvantageous for farmers. In addition to the extra work involved, for example in providing evidence to certification organisations, the lower number of animals and reduced crop yields associated with more environmentally friendly methods would speak against organic farming or other ecologically sustainable methods, at least from an economic perspective.

This narrative has been used in the past during farmers' protests in Switzerland and the EU to downplay the value of animal welfare measures or ecological achievements of agriculture. But is this justified? The following key questions arise:

• How economically viable is organic farming in Switzerland?
• Do more animal-friendly husbandry and (agro-)ecological farming methods generally represent an obstacle to income?
• What role do institutional and market-economic framework conditions play for the "real income" of Swiss farmers, such as marketing via label organisations, organic-oriented direct payments or structural improvements?

• WWF Switzerland

• Swiss Agricultural Alliance
• IP Suisse
• Bio Suisse

• Reinecke Sabine (Department of Food System Sciences)

Project manager

FiBL is taking on several central tasks in this project: It is conducting a literature search, synthesising the content of the results, designing illustrations and layouts and is also responsible for communicating and disseminating the project results.

• Agri-Food Systems (Department of Food System Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)