Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FARMING

Dozens of Swiss farmers eager to grow cannabis

Some farmers in Switzerland would jump at the chance to grow cannabis should the drug be legalized in Switzerland, the Schweiz am Sonntag newspaper has reported.

Published: 19 April 2016 12:17 CEST
Dozens of Swiss farmers eager to grow cannabis
File photo: Marcel van Hoorn/AFP

Dozens of farmers have expressed their interest in growing the plant, the director of Bern’s social affairs office, Franziska Teuscher, told the paper.

Their interest comes on the back of pilot projects in the city which aim to ease restrictions on cannabis use with a view to potential legalization.

In February this year four Swiss cities, including Bern, signed up to participate in the creation of ‘cannabis clubs’ which would authorize the controlled use of cannabis for those suffering from problems linked to the drug.

Also in Bern cannabis is to be available for sale in selected pharmacies under a pilot project led by Bern University.

Cannabis use is widespread in Switzerland, with figures exceeding the European average. According to Addiction Monitoring Switzerland, at least 210,000 people smoke pot regularly, though some put the figure as high as 500,000.  

According to a recent Europol report, the black market for cannabis in Europe has a value of nine billion euros, while Schweiz am Sonntag puts the Swiss share at one billion francs.

So it’s not surprising that some Swiss farmers want to get involved, should the country’s pilot projects lead to legalization of the drug.

Speaking to the paper, Andreas Wyss, director of the Bern farmers society, said: “There’s real potential.

“Growing cannabis is easy and doesn’t take much space. And there’s already some expertise related to growing hemp.”

Sandra Helfenstein, spokeswoman for the Swiss Farmers’ Union, agreed.

“We won’t push for homegrown production. But if cannabis could be sold legally I’m sure farmers would be ready to cover the demand,” she told Schweiz am Sonntag.

Currently Switzerland has around 20 hectares of land devoted to growing hemp – an industrial variety of the cannabis plant – destined for making tea, beer, paper and clothing, she said.

But farmers will have to wait and see if they will be allowed to develop homegrown cannabis production.

Bern's social affairs director Teuscher told the paper that it would be “too complicated” to trial cannabis-growing in a pilot project.

“But if one day there is federal legislation, it’s a good idea,” she said.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FARMING

Farmers dump sheep killed by wolves in front of Swiss government building

Swiss sheep farmers on Saturday dumped the bodies of animals killed by wolves in front of a regional government building, demanding more action against the predators, Swiss media reported.

Published: 7 April 2024 13:09 CEST
Farmers dump sheep killed by wolves in front of Swiss government building

Around a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthelemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay out the carcasses of 12 sheep in front of the regional government headquarters in Lausanne, the Chateau Saint-Maire.

“These sheep were killed last night,” Eric Herb, a member of a Swiss association demanding the regulation of big predators, was quoted as saying by the Keystone-ATS news agency.

“It is really time to act.”

“We are sick of this. We want the wolf killed,” agreed Patrick Perroud, a farmer and butcher from the nearby municipality of Oulens.

“Cohabitation is not possible. Our territory is too small,” he told Keystone-ATS.

The protesters told the news agency that wolves had killed 17 sheep in the same area late last month, two earlier this week and 13 overnight to Saturday.

“The breeders have played nice until now, but this time it was too much,” Herb said.

The protesters were planning to increase the pressure on the Vaud government environment minister, Vassilis Venizelos of the Green Party, he said.

One of the protesters’ banners read: “Vassilis step down”, Keystone-ATS reported.

The breeders had briefly negotiated with regional police before being allowed to lay down the animal carcasses on tarpaulin in front of the Chateau.

Participants in the protest, which was supported by the regional chapter of the far-right Swiss People’s Party — Switzerland’s largest party — lamented that they were losing sleep.

“We have to check on our animals every night,” one was quoted as saying.

After being wiped out more than a century ago, wolves have in recent decades begun returning to Switzerland and to several other European countries.

Since the first pack was spotted in the wealthy Alpine nation in 2012, the number of packs swelled to 32 last year, with around 300 individual wolves counted.

Nature conservation groups have hailed the return as a sign of a healthier and more diverse ecosystem.

But breeders and herders complain of attacks on livestock and have been ramping up demands to cull more wolves.

Swiss authorities last year relaxed the rules for hunting the protected species, and decided to allow large preventative culls in the most affected cantons but swift legal actions put those plans partially on ice.

The debate in several parts of Europe about wolves rose up the political agenda in September.

In an open letter to the European Commission, eight leading conservation groups said there were ways to make coexistence easier between humans and large wild animals like wolves.

“Damage to livestock is often linked to the lack of adequate supervision and/or physical protection,” they said. They pointed to strategies such as “the training of dogs to protect herds, education of herders, tools and technical solutions to deter wolves”.

SHOW COMMENTS