Threat or opportunity: agricultural interest groups’ perception of land right changes in the new Swiss agricultural policy (PA22+)

In 2017, the Swiss Federal Council writes that land is the most important production factor for agriculture. However, about one-fourth of newly formed farmers will probably have a very hard time to access land because they will not inherit a farm. Accessing land as an ‘outsider’ is almost impossible in Switzerland. At the same time, every day about four farmers give up their farms. Interestingly, the pre-project of the new Swiss agricultural policy (PA22+) proposes, among other changes, to open access to land to non-profit organizations instead of limiting it to the ownership by a physical person, ‘société anonyme’ or ‘société à responsabilité limitée’ with the goal of facilitating access to land for ‘outsiders’. However, most consulted agricultural interest groups perceived this proposed change very negatively. While this is not so surprising in some cases, it is more intriguing in the case of two agricultural interest groups who have been particularly engaged in facilitating the access to land for ‘outsiders’. The Swiss-German organization founded in 2014 a platform to connect retiring farmers and new farmers without farm property. The French-Swiss organization has been working on a brochure to help collective structures to access land. However, despite their engagement for opening access to land for newcomers and collective structures (Community-supported agriculture etc.), they are very skeptical towards the proposed land right changes. Through a processual/historical analysis, I wish to understand how these two organizations frame the question of access to land in order to understand why they perceive this land right change rather as a threat than an opportunity for agriculture.  Furthermore, a discourse analysis shall help me uncover how meaning is constituted, what the dominant forces at play are and how actors resist to or push for social change.