Gruezi. Greetings from Switzerland.
On Jan. 8, with the temperature at -25 C as we flew out of Edmonton we looked down on a white expanse of square patches of fields, the corners dotted with farm buildings and occasionally the odd creek or grove of trees.
Early the next morning, we circled above Zurich, Switzerland, the ground below us appeared as a crazy quilt made up of small pieces in every shape and size, in different shades of green and brown. The temperature was a balmy 5 C.
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Two different worlds.
On Jan. 21, we fly to another world to spend three months in Zambia, Africa on agriculture projects, and hopefully two weeks in Kenya visiting African friends.
We’ve stopped in Switzerland for 12 days to visit family in Schleitheim, near the German border. My husband, Robert, and I were both born in Switzerland. Our older son, Mike, works here as an engineer. We plan to attend his wedding June 7 on our way back to Canada. Robert’s parents are both 85 years old now. We are thankful for the opportunity to spend time together.
Yesterday, we visited friends who farm outside the village. He was telling us of the commotion the latest press conference of the Swiss Agricultural Board had incurred, when they presented their yearly agriculture forecast in January. The issue was the farm they chose as the place for the press conference. The young family with two children owns 175 acres, has a milk quota of 700,000 litres, and boards 20 horses.
They care for two handicapped persons, for which they receive government support. A flood of angry letters barraged the board for choosing a farm that is in no way representative of the average Swiss farm 50 acres and much less milk quota, saying the board belittled the typical farm family.
It is interesting for us as Canadian farmers — the ‘super’ farm, as the average Swiss sees it, would be small for our thinking, and would struggle to survive in Canada. Farms have continually increased in size since we left Switzerland 16 years ago and they say another half of the farmers will need to quit in the years ahead so farms can continue to stay viable; a familiar story for Canadians, just on a different scale. I hope to share more stories about farm life in Switzerland when we come back here in May.
We planned to stop in Kenya for two weeks before going on to Zambia, but the recent unrest after the December 27 elections changed that. Here’s an SMS (Cell phone text message) our friend Edward wrote Jan. 1: “Happy new year to u too. Indeed the situation is bad. Food is running out stores in Nyakach (where they live). No communication at all. Wondering where to run.”
On Jan. 11 he wrote: “things r coming back to normal. But pple r still afraid to move.” Hopefully, things will have calmed down so we can visit there in mid April.
News broadcasts rarely show the hardships that the farmers suffer in such situations. The Kenyan corn harvest has just come off, but is not brought to market yet.
Roadblocks and fuel crisis means corn can’t move so farmers will not receive much needed money at this time, and those requiring food will go hungry. Those farms that depend on a daily market such as dairies, egg and horticulture farms are especially hard off. It could be compared to the crisis in Eastern Canada a few years ago when the storm took the power out, just that economic situations are much tougher, and there is very little ability to store food on the farm or in people’s homes.
From Zambia, we hear that the rains are too plenty as they reach the middle of the rainy season. Zambia has an enormous potential but also challenges. We look forward to learning together with the farm co-operatives how to meet and overcome these challenges.
Other columns in this series:
Diaries of a Global Farmer – May 22, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – May 15, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – May 8, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – May 1, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – April 24, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – April 17, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – April 10, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – April 3, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – March 27, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – March 20, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – March 13, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – March 6, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – February 28, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – February 21, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – February 14, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – February 7, 2008
Diaries of a Global Farmer – February 1, 2008
