👉 Subscribe and listen on Spotify, Apple podcast, Deezer or Podcast addict
How is it that those who feed us can no longer make a living from their work? That a market gardener sometimes receives only 30% of the selling price of a vegetable? What is a fair price?
In this episode, I meet Urs Gfeller, a market gardener in Sedeilles, Canton Fribourg. Since its inception in 1994, it has chosen not to work with major distributors. He sells his products via direct sales channels, at the farm, at the market and, more recently, at the bio26 shop, a cooperative he co-founded in Fribourg.
With Urs Gfeller, we:
🔸 visit the bio26 project
🔸explore the reasons behind his decision to embark on this adventure
🔸 Take a look at how bio26 works and compare it to the major retailers’ supply chains.
Next, we meet Sandra Imsand from the Fédération romande des consommateurs.
In a survey, the Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC) has dissected the price of what’s on our plates. This survey reveals that consumers pay a very high price for meat, fish and vegetables, but that only a marginal proprotion of this price is passed on to the producer.
With Sandra Imsand, we explore :
🔸what margins do major retailers make on the vegetables we buy?
🔸what would be a fair price for our vegetables?
Finally, we take a trip back to 2040 to see what Swiss agriculture might look like if we changed our pricing policy.



References
- Urs Gfeller Market gardening
- bio26 project in Fribourg
- Enquête de la Fédération Romande des Consommateurs: FRC reveals the underbelly of margins in market gardening
To find a direct sales outlet near you
- Guide romande de la ventre directe; bioSuisse list of direct selling farms in Vaud ; list of direct selling farms in Geneva
- Or the sites of numerous direct sales cooperatives such as (non-hexaustive list): Coupe-circuit; Jardin vivant or La brouette in Lausanne; les P’tits Pois in Morges; La canopée in Muraz (VS); le Radis in Bex; Système B in Neuchâtel; Le Rucher in la Chaux-de-Fonds; L’épicerie Autrement in Tramelan; Chez Emmy in St-Blaise; le Nid or l’Epi Vert in Geneva; Epicoop in Vevey, Vracerie in Vully; Le local in Nyon.
Further information
Would you like to find out more about this topic? Here are the recommendations of Nora and Corinne, booksellers at Payot Genève:
– Why farmers will save the world, by Sylvie Brunel
– La figure du paysan: la ferme, l’Amap et la politique, by Romuald Botte and Bruno Villallba
– Faire Paysan, by Blaise Hoffmann
Support
The podcast “2040, j’y vais!” was made possible thanks to the support of the Giovannini Foundation, the city of Fribourg, the city of Meyrin, EPER, One Planet Lab and Services Industriels de Genève. We would also like to thank our partner Payot bookshops.