Twilight of the gods
Dear Readers,
The surge in inflation following the coronavirus pandemic is an important topic in the US election campaign. Since every vote counts, the loss of purchasing power has the potential to influence the outcome or, as the Americans say, to «move the needle». Compared to the price hikes in the US and the EU, inflation in Switzerland has remained within reasonable limits. And yet: prices have become a focus of attention in Switzerland again. «NZZ am Sonntag» describes the fierce competition in the food trade under the title «the great devouring» (in German: «Das grosse Fressen»). According to the Federal Statistical Office, food costs around 8 per cent more today than in December 2020. And health costs and rents have also risen. «NZZ am Sonntag» draws the conclusion: «Consumers are increasingly turning to affordable products instead of brands or organic products. And they are also once again shopping abroad on a large scale. So anyone who doesn't invest in affordable food will lose market share – just like Migros recently.»
Consequently, the Migros Group is restructuring. It wants to focus more on price in the future and writes in a statement: «The retailer will invest over eight billion francs for its customers over the next five years, including in lower prices and new store concepts.» The web news portal «Infosperber» complains that Migros is also cutting back on organic products – because of the prices. However, the fact is: all available technologies are needed for the efficient production of large quantities – is Migros just becoming aware of this? At least it is addressing the lack of available crop protection solutions in Migros Magazine and giving molecular biologist Bruno Studer a platform, who is researching new breeding methods at ETH for more resilient plants.
Others are also caught up in the price war: Aldi, for example, is advertising with the slogan «Swiss meat should not be a luxury.» And because Aldi is in direct price competition with Migros subsidiary Denner, Denner is also lowering its prices, as Blick reports. Meat is also becoming cheaper at Denner. «At Nestlé, the CEO was replaced. The company focuses on food sales again.» Because, as the «NZZ» writes in a worthwhile article on the five misconceptions about Big Food: It has been shown that the issue of sustainability is far from being at the top of the agenda for all investors. At least not the one-sided understanding of sustainability. Because sustainability has three dimensions – environmental, economic and social. However, this has often been neglected in public discourse. Peter Maurer, a former Swiss top diplomat and former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said at the General Assembly of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in spring 2024 that politics in Europe and Switzerland have focused too much on the ecological dimension of sustainability and neglected the social and economic dimensions. This way they lose public support – not only, but especially in the Global South, where the challenges in these two dimensions are much greater than here.
The price is closely linked to the economic and social dimensions of sustainability. Comprehensive sustainability in the long-term can only be achieved if all dimensions are in balance. It is a constant balancing act. In one of his Nibelung operas, Richard Wagner used the term «twilight of the gods» («Götterdämmerung») to describe the downfall of the gods and the emergence of a new and better world – a turning point. If the «giants» in the food industry are focusing on their core business and prices, is this perhaps just the beginning of a development towards comprehensive sustainability that is balanced in the long term in all three dimensions?
In the labelling chaos, economic and social aspects often went under. Marketing became more important than the comprehensive view. To get one step further, questions arise such as: Have the «one-dimensional labels» become obsolete? Don't we need science-based standards that address conflicting goals and also take imports into account? We import more than 50 per cent of our food, and a whopping 67 per cent of our plant-based food. How can all dimensions of sustainability be captured with simple labels for all food products – in a way that makes sense?
According to the proposed constitutional text of the initiative, the new «Food Safety Initiative» wants all foodstuffs containing genetically modified organisms to be labelled. But random mutagenesis, which has already been used to breed over 3’000 crops, has been declared officially to be genetic engineering by the European Court of Justice and now also by the Federal Council. National Councillor and co-initiator Martina Munz states: «In my view, mutagenesis is genetic engineering and as such should be regulated.» This, too, is a twilight of the gods. Supposed certainties and worlds are perishing. The myth of «GMO-free Swiss agriculture» is collapsing. Genetically modified food has been on our plates for a long time – even in organic agriculture – and according to the new food protection initiative, it would have to be labelled as such. And it gets even worse: random mutations in organic and conventional breeding often result from radioactive irradiation or chemical treatment. According to the logic of the food protection initiative, such organic carrots would not only have to be labelled as genetically modified food, but also with warning signs for radioactivity and chemicals.
This is, of course, nonsense. The same applies to the labelling of new, resistant varieties that have been created using genome editing and cannot be distinguished from conventionally bred varieties. When old myths collapse, they should not be immediately replaced by new ones. Otherwise, the twilight of the gods was in vain.
Your swiss-food editorial team
