Agroscope attempts to contribute to a sustainable agriculture and food sector, and maintain an intact environment.
[1] Sites are Avenches (Swiss National Stud Farm SNSF), Breitenhof, Cadenazzo, Changins, Conthey, Güttingen (Fruit Growing Pilot Plant), Liebefeld, Posieux, Pully, Reckenholz, Tänikon and Wädenswil.
Its goals are a competitive and multifunctional agricultural sector, high-quality food for a healthy diet, and an intact environment.
The common grazing on the fallow, the unfertilized Allmend and the stubble fields, and the lack of winter feeding offered only a meager food supply.
Young country gentlemen took the management of their estates into their own hands and sought agriculture, especially the raising and promotion of livestock.
They stopped adhering rigidly to the three-field technique and began with stall-feeding, careful storage of manure, and planting potatoes and clover on the old fields.
[5] First stations for education and control (1850–1880) During the second half of the 19th century, humans had to adapt to the requirements of an industrialized community.
[8] This provided the starting point for the subsequent founding of the Reckenholz location of the present-day Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station (ART).
However, the second location, Tänikon TG, was only opened in 1970, at that time as a research station for rural economics and agricultural engineering.
[10] These two locations, Changins and Wädenswil, were merged more than a hundred years later to form the Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station (ACW).
[12] The Liebefeld and Posieux locations merged exactly one hundred years after their foundation to form the Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux Research Station (ALP).
These bottlenecks particularly in the food supply during the First World War broke out in agricultural research, big changes.
The importance of cereal crops for food security had been detected and forget the bad experiences at the beginning of World War II.
As of this date, it received the new name Swiss Federal Agricultural Research Institute Zurich – Oerlikon (ELVA).
[16] Second World War (1939–1945) To learn from past mistakes and, if possible not repeat them, people responded pretty quickly, as the political situation in Europe worsened.
[17] With the outbreak of war, the Laboratory provided primarily the service of the adaptation and reproduction of agricultural production.
End of September 1943, the federal government acquired the good Reckenholz on the northern border of Zurich-Affoltern.
[18] Post-war years and the impact of the growing battle (1946–1960) Thanks to the American Marshall Plan enormous sums of money flowed into western Europe.
[19] Time since 1960 The Farm Act of 1951 emphasized the idea that the overproduction of meat and milk can be avoided by a generous promotion of agriculture, which proved to be deceptive.
During this period, they put the focus of research attention on the development of friendly production methods and improving the quality of the crop.
It had become clear that the company long term was only an environmentally friendly, animal-friendly, and tolerant of the sustainability-oriented mode of production.
The target was clear: a comprehensive, environmentally sound, and resource-efficient land management, which complies with the care and preservation of our cultural landscape.
Today, IP in Switzerland equals very often the production after the so-called ÖLN ("ecological performance record") or SUISSE GARANTIE.
Regarding a constantly growing world population and a threatening climate change agricultural research has big challenges to overcome.
Jakob Gujer [de], also known as Chlyjogg, became famous through the Zurich city doctor Hans Caspar Hirzel, who published a small book in 1761 called The Economy of a Peasant Philosopher.
Chlyjogg was born in 1716 in Wermatswil, where he inherited a farm that he managed with great success using new methods he devised.
In 1890 he became the first director of Wädenswil, the present-day Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station (ACW), and was a pioneer in the field of vine cultivation.
His election as successor to Director Koblet took place on 1 November 195, when he took responsibility for both academic work and organizational and administrative issues.
1968) Simone de Montmollin, a member of the National Council, works as an oenologist and was a communications specialist at Agroscope from 2014 to 2017.