One could say that the initiative to subsidize farmers who use highly toxic chemicals and unsustainable practices resulting in depletion and eventual destruction of soil is also drastic.
As in paying money to destroy the soil and help someone profit a bit extra in the process is maybe not the best investment of people’s taxes.
Of course, it took us some time to start paying attention to the externalities. But now that we do let’s correct course.
To clarify, I believe the goals are laudable, and the "drastic" adjective was the best approximation I had.
My first guess would be to vote 2× yes, but I have some reservations:
* I heard that even among organic farmers, it was not a clear 2× yes.
* There is the question of efficiency of organic/no pesticide farming: are we going to have a really bad output and something less ecological in the end due to more work for the same amount of food produced?
* Am I just a bourgeois voting for my trendy ideals, not seeing that poorer people won't have the money to pay for heightened prices?
* Am I just a city-dweller that thinks farming is easy peasy, putting even more strain on the farmers, whose lifes as hard enough as it is?
* Are we going to rely more on importation, thus simply externalizing the problem (seemingly the initiative take care of this question)?
All this to say: I'm not confident enough in my knowledge of farming and ecology to yet say I'm going to vote 2× yes.
Your reservations are similar to mine. I still voted yes, I think we need a clear signal, that we want an exit strategy and what is being done is not enough. Even if both pass, I highly doubt they will be put into effect 1:1 (just look at the migration initiative). If they do not pass, it would be sad if only like 1/4 or less voted yes.
You're right in your doubts and I have the same, but let's not forget we're talking about Switzerland and nobody ends up not being able to feed themselves. Maybe social help will increase but on the other side a healthier diet eases the pressure on the health system (remember the 39% increased incidence of brain tumor in children from agrarian regions in canton Zurich?)
As in paying money to destroy the soil and help someone profit a bit extra in the process is maybe not the best investment of people’s taxes.
Of course, it took us some time to start paying attention to the externalities. But now that we do let’s correct course.