Mittwoch, 15. April 2015

M is for Milk that is sometimes subsidised

me approaching a cow on the day that she marched down the alp for autumn 
The Swiss spend as much annually on subsidising three cows as they do on primary schooling for one child.
Silvio Borner, the head of Basel University's department of applied economics, calculated that a Swiss cow costs CHF 4,000 in government subsidies, while the bill for educating a primary school child for one year is CHF 12,000. He then formulated that awkward comparison.
68% of a swiss farmer's income will come in the form of a government subsidy, if they have chosen to feed their cows with hay and grass instead of soy feed and support biodiversity.
Switzerland has one of the highest levels of farming subsidies of all countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) (many countries in western Europe).
The Swiss Farmer's Association says that "in terms of sustainability, it is among the most modern worldwide." The sustainability may be the only modern things, as the rest seems really traditional and beautifully old school to this foreigner.
Here is a strange Youtube video of a different foreigner talking about Swiss cows.

1 Kommentar:

  1. I've heard of "have a cow" before, but I didn't know they were treated so special in the Swiss. :)

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