Swiss Farmers' Association

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The headquarters of the Swiss Farmers' Association at Laurstrasse 10 in Brugg

The Swiss Farmers 'Association (SBV, until 2013 Swiss Farmers' Association ; French Union suisse des paysans , Italian Unione Svizzera dei Contadini ) represents the interests of agriculture in Switzerland and is one of the most influential organizations in the country.

Organization and goals

The association is composed of representatives from 25 cantonal professional organizations and 60 professional associations (22 from the animal production sector, 17 from the crop production sector, 5 cooperative associations and 16 from other sectors; as of December 2003). The headquarters of the SBV is in Brugg .

The affiliated sub-associations represent around 55,000 farms. They elect 500 members for the delegates' meeting, which sets the association's goals and makes fundamental decisions. The delegates elect a 100-strong Chamber of Agriculture from their ranks; Their tasks are to secure income, submit information to authorities and supervise the management. The association board consists of 18 to 21 members. It deals with the current association business, making commissions and appoints the members of the office .

The SBV sets itself the following goals: offering various services for farmers, maintaining family farms, adequate income for farmers, influencing the legal framework, sensible use of the soil, producing quality products using transparent production processes and designations of origin, protecting the cultivated land and protecting the Nature. According to its own statements, sustainable agriculture is very important to the farmers 'association. However, the farmers' association is fighting the drinking water initiative because, in its opinion, it overshoots the target.

To fulfill these goals, the SBV operates various service companies, these include Agrimpuls (job placement), Agriprof (education), Agriexpert (trust services, legal and valuation issues ), the agricultural construction and architecture office LBA and the Agrisano companies. The latter are five legally and economically independent companies (Agrisano Stiftung, Agrisano Krankenkasse AG, Agrisano Versicherungen AG, Agrisano Prevos and Agrisano Pencas) that act together and offer farming families and their employees self-developed and needs-based solutions in the field of personal insurance. Agrisano works closely with the cantonal agricultural professional organizations that operate regional offices (regional offices) for Agrisano.

The association is animal welfare very important. He therefore advocates clear enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act - the association is also against the slaughter of pregnant cows and cattle. According to Martin Rufer from the SBV, sanctions from slaughterhouses are more efficient than buses. In addition, the SBV is committed to ensuring that the direct payments to farmers (around 2.8 billion francs per year) are not reduced, as the majority are tied to public services.

history

It was founded in 1897. The association's headquarters were initially in Bern , three years later it was relocated to Brugg , as the wife of the then association director Ernst Laur came from there and did not want to move to Bern under any circumstances. Another formative person in the early years was Fritz Zaugg . From the small farmer's secretariat, through the creation of new departments, an association with over 80 permanent employees developed over time. The director of the SBV's office has been the Freiburg National Councilor Jacques Bourgeois since 2002 , and the association's president since November 21, 2012, the CVP politician Markus Ritter . Ritter is the first organic farmer to hold this position.

From 1995, the association offered internet services under the name agri.ch. After a management buy-out , the company green.ch emerged in 2001 and is now the third largest Internet service provider in Switzerland.

Directors (the respective term of office in brackets)

President of the SBV (the respective term of office in brackets)

financing

The farmers' association is financed two thirds from the income from its services and one third from the contributions of its member sections. These contributions are paid directly or indirectly by the farming families and, depending on the size of the farm, amount to around CHF 100 to CHF 150 per farming family and year. For their part, the contributions of the farming families are divided in a ratio of 3: 2 into area contributions and production contributions. The reason for this division is that it takes into account both the cultivated area and the added value of the various branches of production. The assembly of delegates votes annually on the area contributions and also decides every four years on the product-related contributions, which are adjusted to the current share of final production.

The latest resolution of the delegates' meeting adjusted the amount of product-related contributions as of the beginning of 2018. The product-related contributions had been recalculated due to the final production and in some cases resulted in considerable changes for individual member sections. That is why the SBV also adjusted the rights of representation in the committees.

The Association of Swiss Vegetable Producers (VSGP) did not accept the resolution of the Assembly of Delegates and decided to withdraw from the SBV at the end of February 2018 with retroactive effect from January 1, 2018.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Angeli, Otto Hostettler: The power of the farmers. The agricultural lobby has built a parallel universe. With resounding success: it nips every saving idea in the bud and channels the financial flows in their direction. In: Observer 20/2016 of September 30, 2016, pp. 16–25.
  2. ↑ Marco Schnurrenberger: Successful lobbying - the farmers' association has a lot of influence - too much? In: srf.ch . August 28, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019 .
  3. ↑ SBV - About us (accessed December 13, 2017)
  4. ↑ standpoint Markus Ritter, President SBV, for training in: diegruene.ch , November 15, 2019 accessed on 27 January 2020th
  5. ↑ Farmers' Association: Drinking water initiative misses the target In: aargauerzeitung.ch , May 7, 2019, accessed on May 18, 2019.
  6. ↑ Angelika Hardegger: Agrarian felt, fake news and an explosive report: The fight for the drinking water initiative has already begun. In: nzz.ch , May 7, 2019, accessed on May 18, 2019.
  7. ↑ Catherine Boss: "With animal welfare there is no pain threshold". Tagesanzeiger, July 4, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Peter Fritsche: Pregnant cows in the slaughterhouse - punishment for farmers should stop the suffering of unborn calves. SRF, November 29, 2019, accessed on January 15, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Curdin Vinzenz: A game played out - Why the farmers' lobby in Switzerland is still so powerful. In: srf.ch. November 23, 2019, accessed November 23, 2019 .
  10. ^ Swiss farmers 'association: Markus Ritter is the new farmers' president . Media release of November 21, 2012.
  11. ^ SBV director Jacques Bourgeois resigns. In: ufarevue.ch . November 21, 2019, accessed November 24, 2019 .
  12. ^ Adrian Krebs: SBV board proposes Martin Rufer as new director. In: bauernzeitung.ch. December 12, 2019, accessed December 12, 2019 .
  13. ↑ VSGP resigns from the farmers' association In: gemuese.ch, February 23, 2018, accessed on February 23, 2018.