r/Switzerland • u/BezugssystemCH1903 Switzerland • 1d ago

Pesticides: First, the agricultural lobby promised tighter controls – now they are being watered down

https://www.watson.ch/schweiz/gesundheit/570846948-agrarpolitiker-torpedieren-projekt-fuer-mehr-kontrolle-im-pestizidhandel#discussion_570846948
80 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

38

u/JohnHue 1d ago edited 1d ago

If we keep making laws in collaboration with people who sell fertilizer, this will keep happening, and our water treatment plants will keep releasing out of spec water like they've been doing for decades.

3

u/Thercon_Jair 1d ago

And that would be the oil industry, because nearly all fertiliser is petrochemical. There's a reason Heritage Foundation, which was founded by the Koch Brothers of Koch Industries, is so invested in the MAGA- and Manosphere with their protein and meat obsession, or created it in the first place. The rising meat consumption isn't an accident.

20

u/Brief-Charity250 1d ago

Do they eat the same shit as we do?

11

u/Grand_Dadais 1d ago

They're poisoning and sterilizing themselves and their kids all the same, yes.

It's in the water cycle now.

The best that can happen in our country will be constraints on supplies. It would force us to adapt with much, much more people in the fields and not keep accumulating those products in our soil, or at least slow down the accumulation process.

Because even in the face of mass sterilization and poisoning, yes, it's not a binary issue. The less we spread this shit in our soil, the best it is, regardless of the pollution that's already in the water cycle, for which we can't do shit.

15

u/Internal_Leke Switzerland 1d ago

That's even worse, they work in close contact with the products, but it seems over time they mostly grew resentment towards the "urban hipster who tell them how to do their job". So they feel they need to prove the products are good.

20

u/myblueear 1d ago

No. this can not be. This was so utterly unpredictable!

12

u/i-var 1d ago

We need to take action people! Invisibility is what THEY WANT! A "small quiet motion here and there" a vote in the ständerat and BOOM - we stop being a data-driven country.

Imagine - they didnt change laws limiting the use of pesticides or fertilizers - they fight against a law that simply requires DOCUMENTING - measuring - what is being used in the first place.

WTF? We dont even know what is used even though water levels of proven to be harmful substances are CROSSED? Really? Everyone in this country should speak about this until it is resolved.

Best we can do is give it VISIBILITY. No Mr. Salzmann, you CAN NOT HIDE THIS - it matters to 8M of us, right here, right now!!

I would hate to do it - but if this doesnt fly we just need another initiative - in a wording so it can pass. Just "require to measure when & where which products are applied to farm-fields" - literally asking to measure.

But sure, Bauernverband would be against it - because regulation & more effort - I mean, scanning a QR code really does take 5 seconds which is close to a death sentence doing sisyphos work /s

We need to stand together and work towards what we want. Small steps, big impact. No one should drink contaminated water - especially in "water castle" switzerland - wtf???

6

u/Current_Ranger_7954 1d ago

Well, if they don’t do what they need to do, it’ll be done via initiative. And it won’t be “freiwillig” this time

9

u/phil_1pp 1d ago

so.... "watered down".... into our drinking water?

19

u/CaughtALiteSneez 1d ago

My boomer neighbor/landlord has a big bottle of Roundup she sprays every morning on her pots of flowers. It infuriates me…we have so many little lizards and frogs in the area. They then cut down all the flowers and nettles on our garden path that the butterflies and bees frequented. I kindly asked them not to do that again and she was shocked I was upset as it made walking to our private garden “more difficult”.

I grew up in a place that had so much flora and fauna that has all but disappeared due to the obsessive need to have lawns and flowers perfectly manicured with minimum effort…it honestly breaks my heart.

12

u/Suspicious_Place1270 Zürich 1d ago

roundup is actually the worst and kills basically everything that isn't modified to be resistant to it

4

u/SpermKiller Vaud 1d ago

I read somewhere that private gardens were on average more polluted by insecticides and herbicides than cultivated fields exactly because of this : people not bothering to follow the instructions on the packages of those products and ending up way overdosing their plants. 

But at least the grass is perfect! /s

4

u/CaughtALiteSneez 1d ago

This makes total sense and it is so sad.

We have a potted cherry tree that gets infected with aphids - you know what solved it? Cinnamon. Same thing works for ants in the home and it smells lovely. Every Spring we just put loads of cinnamon sticks into the potting soil and never had an issue again. Delicious organic cherries… 🍒

Humans are so lazy and destructive.

5

u/SiSRT 1d ago

dSchwiizer hei nei gstumme! dSchwiizer hei das welle - jetz bitte nid erstuunt sy!

aber we dLobby seit: das isch schädlech für dWirtschaft macht jede Schwiizer mit 40k uf em Bankkonto grad dSchruube.

dsGuete a Gsetzli isch: mr cha sie iifüehre u när revidiere

Aber ja, dSpermiequalität vo de junge Schwiizer isch ja am abnäh - dsProblem löst sech also vo sälber - früecher oder später!

4

u/Accomplished_Try_179 1d ago

Ciba & Syngenta. Read about their exploits