A HORNY ISSUE!

Cows are mostly out of sight these days but they made the headlines repeatedly over the last couple of months. The reason was a popular initiative dubbed Horned Cow Initiative.

It proposed additional subsidies as an incentive to raise the percentage of cows and goats with horns, which currently make about a quarter across Switzerland. Cows with horns are happier and more comfortable, so the Interessengemeinschaft Hornkuh argued. Cows without horns are easier and safer (and cheaper) to keep in open pens, so the opponents.

The voting population eventually decided against the initiative, not least because this is not an issue that should be settled in the constitution of our country.

However, the interest and support this grass-roots initiative received, and eventually the good result (45.3%), shows that the topic hit a nerve.

Now, I may be wrong, but I don’t remember any hornless cow on marketing campaigns for our region. Doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

Best regards,

Markus Iseli
Publishing Director