About

When most of us sit down to eat a meal, we rarely think twice about the journey our food has taken before reaching our fork. However, the stories told by the people, places and things that are involved in bringing a bunch of bananas, bar of chocolate, bottle of milk or bag of potatoes to our kitchen table could fill volumes. These are no fairy tales. Our collective food choices have far reaching consequences to people and plant, near and far, both positive and negative. In dry, scientific terms, we may say that the food system is environmentally unsustainable, socially inadequate and economically vulnerable in its current form; that the diverse values we hold for the agroecosystems we form a part of are not being expressed in either prices or policies; and that a fundamental transformation is required to bring our food system back to earth and back within the generous “planetary boundaries” afforded to us as a species by mother nature. 

The Deliberative Diets project is interested in the stories behind our food, particularly relating to the Swiss food system. Like many industrialized countries, the Swiss food system combines a highly-subsidized, intensive and productive agricultural base with a diet that is rich in animal products (meat, milk, cheese etc.) and processed foods (preserved, packaged, prepared etc.). Imports are essential for both production (e.g. for fodder, seed, fertilizer, seasonal labour) and consumption (e.g. exotic products, year-round choice, meeting domestic supply). This means the food system expands far beyond its borders. It is in these often-distant locales that a large share of the environmental and social impacts of Swiss consumption are “left behind”. In essence, the project aims to better understand the consequences of Swiss food consumption on society and the environment, both at home and away. More importantly, we don’t want to just describe the stories told by our food, but actually discuss them with Swiss citizens and other stakeholders. By connecting disparate actors, the project aims to democratize the debate, deliberate on the issues, formulate transformative visions of the future and provide a platform to communicate preferred policies to those in power.