Mountain agriculture in Switzerland: a new "generation"?

"I am not interested in agricultural machines, I prefer the manual work.  One feels better when work is closer to this earth and to the soil that nourishes us" says Felix Bruger, a modern mountain peasant in Soglio, a farming village of the Bregalia Valley in Switzerland. Felix Bruger arrived in Soglio some 8 years ago from another larger farm with a certain idea of returning to essential and simple values.

Working for the chemical industry in Basel, Felix Bruger cannot be cheated. He now owns some 30 goats, and does not intend to extend his herd, because then with a larger number, he would not be able to care for his animals, he would then run an industrial plant.  He produces mainly cheese and manages a small boutique with local products and item, all organics.

The countryside, around Soglio is not fit for raising cows neither to a very diversified agriculture. It is much more adapted to the breeding of goats as those animals have very modest needs and eat up most exceeds of vegetation.

Choosing to live in Soglio, where the urban Felix Bruger  found enough untapped pieces of land, means choosing to live more simply and to aim to quality rather than quantity. But F. Bruger is furious at the stupidities of national central officers and at their absurd directives. Moreover, he says, "school training is good, but it is not sufficient, they have to come right to the fact and plough the ground, otherwise, they will not understand anything to mountain agriculture"

How does he see his future here in Soglio? Felix Bruger  believes in the virtues of resistance. Hope and resistance. During the last decade, tens of thousands of small farmer units have disappeared. But says Felix Bruger, "strangely enough, as long as there are larger units, there will be mountain peasants.

In Switzerland, subsidized mountain agriculture is an important part of the agriculture policy.

"One day, and sooner than we think, we may have to  adapt  to a much more frugal life. We have to be prepared. And we cannot change the whole world, we only can change oneself and our own attitude and doings" he concluded.

Soglio, August 28, 2009