The Transformative Potential of Swiss Visions for Sustainable Food Systems

In Switzerland sustainable food system transformations have received much attention in recent years. Five actor groups worked on visions of such transformations: A citizen council, a science coalition, two government entities, and the biggest organic agriculture organization. The latter also assigns the most important organic certification in Switzerland. While the first four visions address the entire Swiss food system, the last one focuses more on reducing GHG emissions throughout the organisation’s organic value chain, which includes its approximately 7500 members. However, the larger context and constraints of the Swiss food system play a significant role in their considerations. It is unclear how impactful such visions and their proposed measures are. This paper compares these five visions regarding their justice implications, their transformative potential and to what extent the proposed measures address the visions' objectives.