Over 500,000 dogs live in Switzerland. The Amicus database reported a record increase in registrations during the Corona pandemic. Young puppies and kittens are popular with the Swiss. However, their need for time, love and food should not be underestimated. Otherwise they will end up back in the shelter just as quickly as they were bought. Animals are not consumer goods.
Good for animals and environment
A dog can turn your life upside down. For some it is a faithful companion, for others a sports partner, sometimes it even replaces a child. Dogs need exercise - lots of it. In the best case, the nearest park is not far away, sometimes a car ride is indispensable.
Which dog owner does not attach great importance to a beautiful, well-kept path? Preferably with few people and even less noise. What doesn't work at all are aluminium cans, masks or whole rubbish bags in the meadows. Littering kills: If an aluminium can is thrown into the field, sooner or later it will be cut up in a mowing machine and end up in the feed of the farm animals. In the worst case, a tiny piece of aluminium can slit open a cow's stomach to such an extent that it dies in agony or has to be killed. And who wants to be responsible for the death of a beloved animal?
Proper handling of dog excrement
Cows eat grass, dogs prefer meat. Dog excrement is not fertiliser. It contains the pathogen Neospora Caninum, which is dangerous for cattle, sheep, goats, foxes, horses - and again dogs. Dog excrement in food leads to infestation in the organs of intermediate hosts and causes infected animals to give birth to sick young, if they do not already lose it during pregnancy. Again, everyone contributes to the environment and healthy animals.
The closer the producer and the shorter the transport route, the better the eco-balance. One might think... Unfortunately, the eco-balance of our food is not that simple. Sun-ripened tomatoes from Sicily can be more environmentally friendly than Swiss organic tomatoes. But how can it be that organic is more harmful than conventional? And how does sustainable shopping work?
The journey is the destination
SRF-Espresso and WWF have addressed the question of how to shop sustainably.
It is clear that the organic standards in other countries are less strict or less well controlled than in Switzerland. The EU's organic label even allows air transport, which has a correspondingly bad effect on the ecological balance of the food. As a consumer, you usually have no chance to find out how the food was transported. There is no obligation to declare the transport. Some wholesalers like Migros and Coop voluntarily label the rack/product if it came here by air transport. Lidl completely refrains from selling fruit and vegetables that have been flown in.
Season is trump
New Zealand apples and pears from South Africa are not uncommon here. And some people wonder why we transport them here from the other end of the world when they grow in Switzerland, too. But these fruits should not be demonised per se. Depending on the season, they even have a better eco-balance than their Swiss counterparts, provided they were transported by ship.
How can this be? In order for Swiss food to be available in the shops after its season, it has to be stored in cold storage for months. This costs energy, of course. And often New Zealand plantations are more productive with more fruit per tree.
Conclusion: The season is decisive. If you buy Swiss cherries in summer and Swiss apples in autumn, you are doing everything right. A seasonal table is available here.
How to buy sustainably
What I learned: Not all organic is the same, New Zealand is not bad per se and freshly harvested food from the region is not only the most nutritious but also has the best eco-balance.
And so it may well be that a conventionally grown apple has a better eco-balance than an organic apple from abroad, which at best still came here by plane.
At the same time, I ask myself whether we really need the same assortment all year round. If we were to base our consumption more on seasonality, we would automatically have healthier and more environmentally friendly food. But of course this also requires a certain amount of sacrifice.
The five-day meeting “Smile for Future” in Lausanne ended on Friday. 450 climate activists from all over the world took part and agreed on three core demands. The event ended with a protest march of 2500 people through the city on Lake Geneva. In this article you will learn, among other things, how you can contribute to climate protection by choosing the right food.
Requirements for the future
In order for future generations to be able to live a life worth living on Earth, a rethink is necessary, combined with immediate measures. The following three objectives are to be achieved in accordance with the demands of climate activists:
Climate justice and equality must be guaranteed
The global temperature rise remains below 1.5 degrees (compared to the pre-industrial level).
Climate policy should take into account the best available scientific work
It is unclear to what extent – and above all how quickly – politicians from all over the world will respond to these demands. It is important, however, that each and every individual can make a contribution to climate protection – and immediately.
What I can do for the climate
1. Throw away less food
Between 25 and 30 percent of all food produced ends up in waste. That’s around 2.6 million tonnes of food thrown away every year in Switzerland. The tragedy is that two thirds of these would be avoidable, 43 percent of which are indebted to the food industry and 28 percent to private households. And the climate also suffers, because waste not only contributes significantly to the CO2 balance, monocultures such as soya are also becoming increasingly common and are partly responsible for the fact that tropical forests the size of Sri Lanka disappear every year, which could absorb the harmful carbon dioxide.
The following tricks will help you, as a private person, to be more aware of how to deal with food:
– no hungry shopping: Spontaneous purchases that are not eaten after all can be avoided in this way.
– store properly: Meat, fish, dairy products, cheese, leftovers, eggs, butter and most fruits and vegetables stay fresh in the fridge the longest. Do NOT put in the fridge: Bread, tomatoes, aubergines, avocados, edible oils and most tropical fruits. Potatoes and onions need a dry, dark place. Apples and tomatoes should be stored separately, because they emit ethylene gas and allow other fruits and vegetables to ripen more quickly.
– While food can often still be consumed after the best before date (be sure to look, smell and taste first!), products with an expiration date should be disposed of after the expiration date. For example, crushed raw meat, poultry or pre-cut salads are considered perishable.
2. Reduce meat consumption
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global meat consumption has more than doubled in the last 60 years. This has resulted in ever higher emissions of climate-damaging gases. According to Greenpeace, meat consumption in Switzerland alone would have to be reduced by 70-90 percent by 2050 in order to achieve the climate targets.
The increased consumption of meat was partly responsible for the fact that more and more land was converted at an unprecedented speed for the production of food and feed, which also accelerated the clearing of the rainforest as an important CO2 reservoir. In view of the growing population, the disappearance of fertile soil (see also blog article) and the decline in biodiversity, the question arises as to how mankind will secure its food supply in the future, because today’s way of food production will eventually reach its limits.
3. Buy regional and seasonal food
Although a large variety of fruits and vegetables can be cultivated here in Switzerland itself, food products from all over the world can often be found on the shelves of grocers. Some ready-made salad packages even contain salads from three or more different countries. At the same time, despite the gas they contain, ready-made salads are often contaminated with too many germs, as various tests have shown. But not only the transport by plane from all over the world to Switzerland is extremely damaging for the climate, but also non-seasonal foods cause a considerable CO2 footprint. The greenhouses, whether in Switzerland or abroad, are heated with fossil fuels, so even regionality plays only a minor role.
Conclusion: It is not only important to pay attention to the country of origin, but also to consider the seasonal table. It is best to buy the food directly from the producer at fair prices. Fresh from the tree/field, the foods not only contain more healthy ingredients than their immaturely picked counterparts, they also burden the environment less thanks to short transport routes and purchases during the season.
Regardless of how climate policy develops and, above all, at what speed, each and every one of us can do something good for the environment.
More than 20,000 people demonstrated for the climate in Swiss cities at the beginning of February. The movement has spread throughout the country: Not only in Zurich and Bern, but also in western Switzerland and Ticino, schoolchildren and adults took to the streets with self-designed posters. They demand that politicians “declare a climate emergency” and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
From Sweden to the WEF
It all started during the 2018 heat wave when 16-year-old Swedish Greta Thunberg stayed away from school in protest. With her sign “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for the climate) she drew attention to herself in front of the Reichstag in Stockholm. Since then, the climate protection movement has gained a foothold not only in Sweden, Belgium and France, but also in Switzerland. “You steal our future” or “cheap flights are too tempting” is written on the banners. Greta Thunberg was even present at the WEF in Davos and took part in a discussion forum on climate policy. While the helicopter taxis were circling over the snow-covered city, she managed the journey from Sweden to Switzerland by train – over 30 hours each way.
Better train than airplane
Speaking of air traffic, did you know that the outward flight from Zurich to New York generates more than 1 tonne of CO2 per person? To offset this environmental impact, you would have to do without beef (approx. 50kg) for 1 year or poultry (approx. 150kg) for 2.5 years. And only if you stay in New York and don’t fly back, otherwise it’s twice as much. And if you also want a new smartphone every year, you can accelerate the degradation of precious metals and the so-called rare earths, which are promoted with harmful chemicals. According to Greenpeace, smartphone production alone consumed 968 terawatt hours of electricity worldwide in the last ten years, which corresponds to India’s annual energy supply.
New Zealand Aapples and greenhouse cucumbers
Not too often New Zealand fruits are found on the shelves of our grocers, from the other side of the world. The reasons are many and varied, ranging from the season to imported pests or extreme weather conditions that have largely destroyed the Swiss harvest. It is obvious that air transport around half the globe is not exactly environmentally friendly. At this point, however, it must also be said that Swiss food can also be very harmful, namely if it comes from greenhouses heated with fossil fuels. It is therefore not only important to pay attention to the country of origin of the food, but also to always keep the seasonal table in mind. And what could be nicer than buying food for our bodies directly from the producer? So you see the business with people and animals, do something good for your health with seasonal vitamin bombs and promote the independence of the farmer, who can finally achieve fair prices without the excessive margins of the retailers.
We as consumers decide
Global warming is here. We cannot prevent it completely, but we can slow it down, because with every degree the weather extremes increase, glaciers become ice streams and native plants disappear. It can be assumed that in the future the quality of food will decrease, but at the same time prices will rise. This is not only due to increasing crop failures due to weather extremes or new pests, but also because the fertile soil is becoming increasingly scarce (see also blog article “Healthy soil for healthy food”). And because the powerful politicians in the world often prefer to talk rather than act, it may not be so bad if schoolgirls like Greta Thunberg become active and bring about a movement whose consequences for the world and the climate are still in the stars. In the end, however, it is important that we as consumers not only take to the streets, but also live climate-friendly lives in our everyday lives. This also includes not eating non-seasonal food or accepting price increases. Let us hope that others will do the same for us and not wait too long until it is too late.
Wir verwenden Cookies, um unsere Website und unseren Service zu optimieren.
Funktional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Vorlieben
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.