Der Stand der Bauern

In 1848 two thirds of the Swiss population were active in farming. In 1994 that number had decreased to four percent. The remaining farmers are very persistent in their struggle to keep their footing in the new era. All of them have developed their own survival strategies. Take the Meisters, the central figures of this documentary. Their son Res has recently taken over his father's farm and is determined to carry on the farm in the latter's tradition, even if the cattle has not been profitable for some time. His parents are embittered by the disrespectful attitude of politics towards farmers. Mother Marianne is convinced of the importance of farmers for the national food supply, especially if war would break out someday. Other farmers do change their working methods. The Girardet brothers, for example, switch over to breeding buffaloes, and Vreni and Moritz Buchli make biological dairy products. Farmer Berry seeks refuge in the exploitation of inseminated egg-cells of his prize cow Finnia. The Schmids have lost the struggle, they are forced to sell their farm. In his film Christian Iseli, a descendant of a line of farmers himself, gives a balanced impression of the diversity and complexity of modern-day farming.