REDUCING THE IMPACT ON SOIL AND SOIL COMPACTION Healthy soil contains a high proportion of organic matter. Examples of agricultural practices that improve the soil’s organic content are crop rotation, planting cover crops, reducing the extent to which the soil is worked, and recycling crop residues through techniques such as composting and biodigestion. Different types of agriculture such as agroecology, pasture rotation, agroforestry, conservation farming and permaculture are practices designed to extend the life of organic matter by returning agricultural waste to the soil and to minimise the use of resources. Alongside these methods, regenerative agriculture is increasingly gaining currency. Designed to improve soil quality through natural means, this method also helps restore fertility to diseased or depleted soils. These practices are mostly based on traditional subsistence farming methods used all over the world, complemented by modern research and innovations in sustainable agriculture. The food production industry has cottoned on to these different issues and is slowly becoming interested in circular agricultural production systems. Nespresso, for example, has turned to agroforestry to preserve and increase the resilience of coffee cultivation ecosystems. This practice is also starting to be adopted at cantonal level. AGRIDEA, the Swiss Association for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas, is helping no fewer than 140 farms to develop agroforestry in the cantons of Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud. The start-up Alver (Canton of Fribourg) markets innovative foodstuffs such as the powdered algae product Golden Chlorella, a neutral-tasting powder containing 63% protein, making it the most protein-rich product in its category. Producing this superfood takes just 2.5% of the arable land and 2.3% of the water required to produce traditional animal proteins. It is one to watch. In a similar vein, the start-up Planted Foods (Canton of Zurich) produces plant-based products as an alternative to animal proteins. In March 2021, barely 18 months after it was founded, this spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) raised CHF 17 million to expand its #TastyRevolution abroad. The company’s aim is to
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replace animal proteins with plant proteins without having to make any real compromises in terms of flavour or nutritional value (see page 86). An important milestone in the evolution of nutrition! To minimise the impact of agriculture on soil and land, an increasing number of aquaponics farms are springing up in Switzerland. One of these is the farm established in Zurich by the start-up Umami. In indoor premises in the middle of the city, Umami grows cabbages, lettuces, radishes and other root vegetables on hemp mats. Grown under LED light, these crops are connected to tanks in which fish and shrimp are farmed. The water in these tanks is filtered by plants before being used to irrigate the crops, and the fish droppings are used to fertilise the seedlings. This is how aquaponics works, by copying what happens in nature. No pesticides or herbicides here! Aeroponics, which is also gaining ground in Switzerland, is a soilless way of growing plants, a technique championed by the scale-up CombaGroup (Canton of Vaud), which has now commercialised the technology under the name CleanGreens Solutions (see page 96). CombaGroup grows lettuces and other plants in a completely airtight, regulated environment, without the use of chemicals or one drop of water more than is necessary. Another aeroponics company, Swissponic (Canton of Ticino), is at the cutting edge of personalised (semi-automatic or fully automated) hydroponics systems design, for both large-scale crop growers and private individuals.
