The thing that fascinated me most about sustainability in Swiss culture was the way food is produced, handled, and consumed. The Slow Food Movement is a good representation of this. As the name suggests, the Slow Food Movement opposes the fast food industry and the associated decline in global health that accompanies it. A guest speaker in my Swiss culture class discussed the basic aspects of this movement - agriculture as good (fresh and flavorful), clean (produced and consumed in environmentally conscious ways), and fair (accessible to all members of a society). The movement originated in Italy in the 1980s. It then rapidly spread throughout Europe. 

A class tour through the main distribution center for Migros, a supermarket in the Ticino region, showed the extent to which Switzerland has embraced the Slow Food Movement.  Our tour around the center was led by a professor, a manager in the company, and a few translators who each spoke five languages or more. Together, they led us to every department, detailing the entire distribution process and introducing us to some of the employees, who told us about their jobs, which was translated afterward. Not only was the distribution process very specific, the employee satisfaction seemed extremely high for this company, which was surprising to me, considering it is a commercial business. 

Two things I found particularly interesting during this tour were the emphasis placed on the quality of the food in accordance to the values of the Slow Food Movement and the way they told us food waste is managed. Food can only be sold at each supermarket if it is grown within a very small radius of the store. This means that the nutritional content of fruit and vegetables is not greatly reduced as a result of miles traveled before consumption. In the U.S., because so much of our food is imported from distant locations, much of the nutritional content is depleted. When food travels only a short distance before consumption, it also requires fewer or no preservatives and tastes fresher and more flavorful. This is how the supermarkets support the concept of food being "good" in accordance with the Slow Food Movement. The short distance this food travels also means that local farmers are well-supported. In the U.S., meat is oftentimes from places where animals are very mistreated. In Switzerland, the concept of food being "clean" means that animal welfare is carefully considered. On a farm that I visited North of Lugano, I learned of how people actually celebrate their cows and move houses to follow them for migration. Animals seem to be appreciated and treated very well in Switzerland in comparison to how they are treated in many other countries. Supporting local farmers in this region means supporting a higher quality for consumers and better conditions for farmers and animals. 

Food waste is managed in such a way that each supermarket within a very limited radius of each distribution center is required to drive all of its waste to the distribution center every evening. The following morning, while the food is still fresh, it is all systematically distributed to local farmers in the area to feed their livestock. This is a really impressive way for Migros to fully use all of its resources to support the country.

Switzerland's dedication to Slow Food and to sustainability inspired much of my later research and taught me things I may not have been able to learn anywhere else. It has made much more conscious of how I can be a greater part of creating a more aware, more active, and more inspired global atmosphere.

You can read more about the Slow Food Movement and its origins in the link to the brief journal article below. Please copy and paste into a new browser window.

https://drive.google.com/a/cougars.ccis.edu/file/d/0B7LrSjiLdBfIREZQNVExNEFwOFk/view?usp=sharing