Switzerland may be famed for its neutrality but it has clearly picked a side in the fight against environmentally destructive diets. A new nutrition strategy will set the country on a more plant-based path, something that could prove of more lasting value to the cantons than a hundred Swiss bank accounts.
Created by the Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO), the eight-year plan runs until 2032 and sets out to wean the Swiss off meat and animal products and onto healthy and planet-friendly fruit, vegetables and legumes.
The reason the Swiss diet needs a rethink is a story of quarters. A quarter of the country’s carbon emissions are down to its food system. A quarter of those emissions are down to food waste (each person throws away 330kg of edible food each year). And a quarter of its population of 8.9 million people have a non-communicable disease. Obesity is also increasing: in the mid-1990s, 30 per cent of adults were overweight or obese; now that figure is 43 per cent and rising, while childhood obesity is at 15 per cent.
The new strategy has six key objectives: to strengthen plant-based nutrition, promote a balanced and healthy diet with sufficient nutrient intake, create healthy and sustainable food environments, reduce food waste, boost nutritional literacy and involve the food industry.
Élisabeth Baume-Schneider, a member of the Federal Council – the permanent grand coalition that governs the Swiss Federation – and its head of home affairs, said the scope of the nutrition plan had been broadened to include sustainability and to take in Switzerland’s climate and agriculture goals and its food waste action plan. It had previously focused solely on disease-prevention.
“This holistic perspective is essential to strengthening the effectiveness of the Swiss nutrition strategy,” she said. “It also requires close co-operation between the relevant federal agencies, stakeholders from the nutrition and food sector, as well as science and civil society.” The new nutrition strategy, she added, “strengthens healthy food supply, reduces the ecological footprint and supports research in the areas of nutrition and food”.
While the Swiss are still a distance from scaling the plant-based Matterhorn conquered by Denmark, which in October 2023 published the first national action plan for a plant-based food system, and South Korea, which introduced its own plant-based strategy a month later, their strategy to encourage more vegetarian and vegan food certainly puts them in the foothills.
By the end of the year the FSVO must put together an action plan with goals for how it will implement the changes, a big part of which will be educating the Swiss about the vital link between sustainability and healthy eating, as well as updating dietary guidelines for the population and improving the plant-based offering in schools.
It’s great to see another country responding to the environmental imperative to change the way we eat. Five years ago an Oxford University report highlighted the extent to which governments are failing the people of their countries by failing to encourage them to eat more nutritious and environmentally healthy food. The UK has already been warned we should be eating 30 per cent less meat. Let’s hope our own plant-based nutrition strategy is in the works!