Biodiversity conservation plots managed by the Erschmatt Botanical Garden. Photo: Adèle Violette

In early June, the Seeds4All project team was invited by artist Alexandra Baumgartner to contribute to the fifth edition of Food Culture Days, a multidisciplinary biennial organised in Vevey, Switzerland, by the platform of the same name. The programme, at the crossroads of art, food, and societal issues, proffered a theme rich with meaning: "At the frontiers of our tongues."

Here, tongues are not only organs of taste—gateways to symbols of culture, memory, and identity—but also languages—means of expression, dialogue, and transmission. Between them, frontiers emerge as dividing lines—geographical, social, economic, or symbolic. They separate as much as they connect, delineate as much as they open up spaces for encounter, exchange, and negotiation.

In preparation for our contribution to the festival’s programme of activities, we set out to meet some of the actors working to conserve and reclaim Switzerland’s seed and agricultural heritage.

Our journey through the cantons of Vaud and Valais was a sensory exploration of a region shaped by multiple interweaving borders: between Switzerland and its European neighbours, between rural populations in the mountains and the plains, between the different links in the agri-food chain, between producers and eaters.

In a global context marked by rising trade tensions, identity-based isolationism, and climate pressures, we wanted to understand how Switzerland, landlocked at the heart of the European Union, approaches the challenges of food sovereignty and navigates its many borders.

How can the necessary relocalisation of food systems be reconciled with a need for exchange based on mutual aid, complementarity, and reciprocity? Can local biodiversity (and its products) support territorially grounded agricultural economies while also nurturing the emergence of spaces for innovation and cooperation across diverse realities?

Emerging from our Swiss immersion, we offer a two-part reflection on how seeds can become anchoring points for rebuilding connections and fostering healthy interdependencies in the pursuit of collective empowerment.

Author: Adèle Pautrat, June 2025

Switzerland has a more flexible legal framework than the European Union when it comes to the marketing and distribution of non-certified seeds. While the EU system (so far) requires varieties to be registered in an official catalogue based on strict criteria of distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS), Swiss legislation allows for the distribution of so-called “niche” varieties—which are heterogeneous and evolutive—without requiring certification.

Thanks to a 2010 revision of the Seed Ordinance, seed producers, farmers, and growers are allowed to distribute seeds of local, heirloom, or public domain varieties—albeit within limited quantities, provided they follow simplified labeling and registration rules.

It was a citizen campaign called “Diversity for All”, initiated by ProSpecieRara (a longstanding champion of cultivated biodiversity in Switzerland) that brought over the line a political compromise that made a little more room for alternative seed varieties.

(Compare, later in the same decade, the 2018 reform of the European Organic Regulation, which adopted a more flexible regulatory framework for organic varieties developed through genetic diversity.)

However, while the law removed certain administrative barriers, it did not guarantee market access or the economic viability of alternative seed systems.

The Swiss landscapes of Valais unfold in layers: high mountains with extensive livestock farming, lower slopes covered with endless vineyards, and plains dominated by fruit trees and AOP-certified rye. Photo: Adèle Violette

Everyone we met in Switzerland shared the same observation: despite a favourable legal framework, few farmers today actually use alternative seeds or truly diversify their crops.

Indeed, Swiss farmers operate within the same global market dominated by industrial seed companies, which offers little support for local and traditional agricultural varieties. They face similar barriers to the majority of EU organic producers who, despite new regulations, still largely rely on conventional varieties under derogation: an insufficient supply of alternative seeds on the market, high costs, agronomic instability, a lack of technical know-how, and a shortage of equipment for harvesting, sorting, or processing diversity.

Without effective support for farmer-led seed selection and proper recognition of the specific needs of alternative seed systems, scaling up remains limited. The transition cannot depend on mere margins of tolerance; it requires clear and structuring political choices—and these must also emerge from the ground up.

The barriers to the emergence of an ecosystem that supports the selection, multiplication, and distribution of so-called "niche" varieties are, in essence, the same everywhere: cultural and structural in nature. And overcoming them still depends on one essential condition: cooperation at all levels, driven by a shared commitment to relocalising and mutualising production resources.

To explore this dynamic further, let’s explore a concrete case study: efforts to reintroduce fava beans in the cantons of Vaud and Valais.

First sprouts of a Valaisan fava bean variety grown in the Erschmatt botanical garden. Photos: Adèle Violette

‘Grandes Cultures de Montagne’ is a project to reintroduce three historical mountain crops in the Swiss cantons of Valais and Grisons: pearl barley, malting barley, and fava bean. Launched in spring 2024, the project is led by Agroscope’s Alpine and Mountain Farming research station.

One project partner in Valais is the Erschmatt Botanical Garden, which maintains a remarkable collection of regional cultural heritage. It is here, on a May day, that we met Laura Kuonen, co-director of the Garden whose seed bank includes around 300 varieties of barley, 150 varieties of wheat, about 20 rye varieties, 10 types of maize, and several legume species. To this collection are now added four local varieties of fava bean, one of which originates from the Erschmatt village itself.

The project goes beyond preservation: its goal is to reintroduce these varieties into local farming, to support their reappropriation by farmers, and to transform them into high-quality regional specialties, in partnership with the FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture).

In this respect, Valais already stands out. It is the only Swiss canton where traditional rye varieties are still widely cultivated, supported by the establishment of the Valais Rye Bread AOP, a product that remains very popular locally.

Laura Kuonen welcomes us in Erschmatt and presents the four fava bean varieties being propagated, with seedlings growing in test plots at different elevations. Photos: Adèle Violette

The trials carried out in Erschmatt are replicated on plots managed by other members of the association, to ensure the varieties can adapt to a range of soils and microclimates. So far, several sowing techniques have been tested: as pure crops and in intercropping systems combining rye and fava beans. Even in the latter case, seeds are sown in rows rather than broadcast, to facilitate harvesting.

Technical challenges are significant in Valais, a region marked by a wide diversity of landscapes and climates. In mid-mountain zones like Erschmatt, there is a pressing need to develop new machinery adapted to harvesting on steep terrain. Erschmatt is collaborating with a similar initiative based in Tyrol, Italy, to co-develop a mountain-specific combine harvester.

For example, our current subsidy system continues to reward laggards, not sustainable leaders. The pioneering farmers who opted for organic and diversified practices back in the 1980s and 1990s have lost out twice – they received no support then and hardly any more today, as their transition is complete. On the other hand, conventional farms have benefitted twice – once from the first industrialisation movement, and today from subsidies that reward rarely more than token ecological efforts.

Once the varieties have been multiplied in sufficient quantities, the Erschmatt Botanical Garden and FiBL move to the second phase of the project: cultivating the beans on a larger scale by partner organic farmers, under diverse conditions and across broader plots. We met one of them, Olivier Studer, based in Saint-Léonard.

The four local fava bean varieties preserved by the Erschmatt Botanical Garden, currently available in limited quantities. Photos: Adèle Violette

In a region dominated by vineyards and orchards, Olivier Studer’s farm stands out. Located in Valais, it is one of the few farms dedicated to growing cereals and legumes exclusively for human consumption. Valais rye, einkorn, emmer, spelt, wheat, corn, lentils, chickpeas... and for the past three years: the local Erschmatt fava bean.

Olivier Studer, farmer and owner of Domaine des Dailles in St. Léonard—one of the few farms dedicated to growing grains and legumes for human consumption. Photos: Adèle Violette

The diversification of his crops is structured around long and complex rotations, lasting about ten years: seven to eight years of cultivation with alternating species and cover crops, followed by three to four years of pasture.

Olivier processes all his harvests on the farm. He owns the infrastructure to sort, store, and produce seven types of flour. This autonomy has grown with the diversification of his crops, allowing him now to control the entire chain—from seed to finished product, sold directly on-site.

Adaptation and multiplication trials for the Erschmatt fava bean are currently underway on 300 m², with technical support from FiBL and guidance from the Erschmatt Botanical Garden. Initially grown alongside wheat, the fava bean is now sown as a pure crop—a shift prompted by differing maturity rates between species, which made broadcast sowing and harvesting too complex.

The final market outlet remains to be determined: selling the beans whole would require a specific dehulling machine, while turning them into flour is technically easier—though commercial outlets still need to be developed (bakers, restaurants, organic shops, etc.).

“Very few people grow legumes. That’s why it’s important to show the way—demonstrate their uses and possible products.”

This shift toward crop diversity is not without its challenges: it demands more labour, new skills, and constant innovation. Still, Olivier says it has helped him regain confidence in his expertise and has brought greater agronomic stability—because, as he puts it, “If it’s not a good year for lentils, I can make up for it by selling other crops.”

The Dailles farm is now self-sufficient in sorting, storage, and milling infrastructure, and sells its processed products directly on-site. Photos: Adèle Violette

Diverse seeds and cropping systems are a powerful lever for farmer empowerment. As in Valais, they give rise to projects that connect farmers with research and technical support, with a clear focus on valuing and reinforcing their knowledge, autonomy, and agency.

In the second part of this article, we will delve deeper into additional forms of structured collaboration needed around peasant work—rooted in a shared objective: to relocalise food systems through ongoing dynamics of exchange and transmission.

Curious about Valaisan rye? Take a few minutes to enjoy the series of short films "Rye – from grain to bread", part of an audiovisual memory project by Stephan Hermann and Philipp Eyer, in collaboration with the Erlebniswelt Roggen Erschmatt association. "Contemporary witnesses Gregor Schnyder and Peter Locher recall the days when rye was still part of daily meals. Their stories and anecdotes offer visitors a glimpse into life in a mountain village, past and present. Both grew their own rye until the 1990s. Through them, we learn—lively and with humor—the journey from seed to baking in the old village oven." Source: Erschmatt Botanical Garden website. Photo: Arnold Steiner