BERN - The Swiss Farmers' Union met on Wednesday to discuss the EU package, in particular the food-safety chapter that had produced a summer of talk about inspectors. Members did not emerge with a yes or a no poster. They emerged with a task to read the annexes again.
Milk producers repeated that audits already happen when a market demands them. Hill-farm delegates asked who pays if a rule written for a Dutch greenhouse lands on a Jura slope.
Consultation clock
The federal consultation ends on 31 October. A union that cannot speak by then still speaks as 20,000 farms. That is messy. It is also honest.