What deeper problem are you addressing?
We aim to address three core systemic challenges: First, access to healthy, sustainable food is increasingly determined by purchasing power: one third cannot regularly afford good food, while another is largely price-insensitive, creating a system where quality food becomes a privilege rather than a right. Second, policy incentives still favour conventional production, leaving small-scale farms, organic producers and neighbourhood shops facing higher costs, while public funding continues to reinforce the status quo rather than preserving commons such as soil health, biodiversity and climate resilience. Third, citizens remain largely excluded from shaping their local food systems, which are treated as private consumption issues rather than a shared public system, limiting collective agency over how food is produced, distributed and made accessible.The FUS challenge addressed with the Food Fund is: ‘How can we make good food affordable and accessible to every household – through new funding and incentive models – so that good nutrition is established as a public good, rather than a premium niche?’
Which habits or practices do you want to change — and how?
We aim to shift three deeply embedded everyday practices:
1) How people access food,
2) Where people buy food,
3) how decisions about food are made.
The aim is to enable participants, through a monthly allowance (e.g. CHF 150) provided in a local, purpose‑bound currency, to develop new and sustainable purchasing practices, such as shopping at farmers’ markets, organic food shops, or through community‑supported agriculture models (CSA). At the same time, the Food Fund is designed as a grassroots‑democratic, solidarity‑based collective. Its concrete design—particularly the selection of participating shops, producers and points of sale—is carried out in a transparent, participatory and independent manner. In this way, participants in the pilot project gain hands‑on experience in collective decision‑making, strengthen their democratic capacities, and are engaged as active actors within the food system. We want to contribute to a shift in which nutritious and environmentally responsible food becomes accessible and desirable for everyone, not only for those who can afford premium prices.
What do you want to work on during the booster — and what do you want to find out?
We aim to use the time and support provided by the Booster to:
- Build a stable and socio-economically diverse citizens’ collective capable of carrying and further developing the pilot project,transfer insights from the Geneva CALIM experience as well as from other pilot initiatives (over 70 in France) to the context of German‑speaking Switzerland, and in particular Zurich.
- Analyse the acceptance and attractiveness of such a model from the perspectives of consumers, producers and local small businesses,establish strong relationships with the local agricultural and commercial ecosystem and embed the project within existing networks and initiatives (e.g. CSAs, food coops, Koopernikus, Ernährungsforum Zürich, Agroecology Works!, Essen für Alle, Tischlein Deck dich)
- Explore partnerships with the City of Zurich and identify the political instruments and coalitions required for public support (initial discussions with representatives of both the executive and legislative branches are already underway),be ready by the end of the year to launch the scientifically accompanied pilot project, with the goal of reaching 500 diverse beneficiaries.