Broye Farmers Call the July Outlook Uneven After a Dry Spell

PAYERNE - Grain and vegetable farmers in the Broye described early July as uneven: irrigated fields were coping, rain-fed parcels were not. Cooperative agronomists talked about soil moisture, not about September's food-security initiative, though the two will meet in the same kitchen.

Water rights in western Switzerland are a quieter fight than housing, and just as local. Communes still argue about who may pump when the brook drops.

A ballot in the next room

The later food-security campaign, in our September polls, will try to turn fields like these into a constitutional sentence. July is still about the hose.