Swissveg

Swissveg logo

Swissveg (formerly the Swiss Association for Vegetarianism (SVV) ) is a Swiss association within the meaning of Art. 60ff of the Civil Code, whose voting members are exclusively vegetarians or vegans . It is based in Winterthur . President of Swissveg is Renato Pichler, who is also on the board of the European Vegetarian Union (EVU) .

history

On August 8, 1993, the Swiss Vegetarian Association (SVV) was founded in Sennwald . It is a member of the European Vegetarian Union (EVU) and the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) . It is a friendly organization of the Vegetarian Association Germany (today ProVeg Germany eV) . The SIA emerged from the Swiss reform youth, which then continued to organize camps and meetings for young vegetarians for a few years as the youth department of the association. On March 3, 2014, the club name was changed to Swissveg .

activities

Advocacy

The association stands up for the interests of vegans and vegetarians. For example, he advocates the offer of vegetarian and vegan menus in staff restaurants.

V label

Swissveg , together with the EVU, launched the European Vegetarian Label, V-Label , and is responsible for the control of products and services that are labeled with it in Switzerland. Swissveg has been coordinating the V-Label project worldwide to this day. Products with the V-Label are sold in Switzerland by Coop , Migros , Aldi Suisse and Lidl , among others .

politics

The association was able to contribute its point of view to Swiss politics when its president was called in by the Federal Food Commission (EEK) of the Federal Office of Public Health to prepare the expert report on the health advantages and disadvantages of a vegetarian diet . Swissveg also contributed to the official legal definition of words such as vegetarian and vegan in the ordinance of the Federal Department of Home Affairs on the labeling and advertising of foodstuffs (LKV) .

Swissveg is also a member of the Swiss Climate Alliance .

Internet presence

With around 2000 Internet pages, the association's homepage is the most comprehensive that is available in German on the subject of vegetarianism / veganism. It is continuously supplemented and updated. The association is increasingly taking account of the trend towards veganism with its own website.

magazine

The association publishes its own magazine four times a year: Veg-Info. It appears in German ( ISSN 1660-0797 ) and French ( ISSN 1660-0800 ) and deals with all topics related to the vegetarian lifestyle, animal rights and ethics . The older main articles in the booklet can be read on the Internet.

Media work

In its media appearances, the association points out the disadvantages of meat consumption. He criticizes the unfavorable ecological balance of eating meat. He considers the rearing of animals under unbearable conditions to be ethically unjustifiable. It provides information about the health risks of consuming large quantities of meat and about the risk of antibiotic resistance due to the massive use of antibiotics in livestock farming. He defends himself against state subsidies for the meat industry. In 2020 Swissveg will launch the largest advertising campaign to date for farm animals with posters throughout Switzerland.

Events

Every year Swissveg organizes the vegan street festival Veganmania in Switzerland and launches a Vegi Day . The Veganmania has contributed to the fact that the long-standing venue Winterthur has become a real capital of veganism. In addition, Swissveg has been a partner of VeggieWorld , Europe's largest and oldest public and trade fair for the vegan lifestyle, since 2016 .