Animal FarmingAfter the Age of the Carnivore: How Will Your Diet Transform the Landscape?Lara Biesser and Ella Willemse

We mostly consume the meat of animals as a ready-to-cook product from the supermarket, but what about the invisible process behind it?

Historically, the cow was an integral part of the Swiss farmer family, supporting the farming activities as a beast of burden and provider of natural fertiliser for the crops. With the industrialisation of agriculture in the 19th and 20th century, the cow has mostly lost its status as a a “co-worker. ”Today, the cow has become a national-like symbol that sustains the image of Switzerland as a pastoral landscape.

The hilly topography of the Tössbergland results in extreme conditions for farming. The specific topography and climate in different altitudes affects the type of farming activities respectively.

The heavily subsidised agricultural sector in Switzerland is in crisis. The state invests large amounts to ensure the production in Switzerland and to keep the image of the bucolic landscape. Now and in the future the incentives created by subsidies will not be sufficient to protect the farmers from the competition on the free market.

Representative surveys repeatedly show that the vast majority of the population demands meat from “species-appropriate animal husbandry”. This is in stark contrast to the fact that the majority of our consumption of animal products today is covered by industrial animal husbandry. Is a more ethical cohabitation of animals and humans possible?

A reduction in meat consumption will lead to a multiplicity of productive agricultural practices coexisting and coworking in communities.