FAIR: Reversing Monocultural Systems in Zurich UnterlandSofia Urzainqui de Miguel, Aikaterini Katsouli, Mateus Rosa da Silveira, and Nick Ulrich

In this first chapter, we analyze the landscapes for production in the Swiss Plateau and the forces that sustain it today, organized into three different conjunctures: The land (Monotonous), the commodities (Monoculture), and the labor (Monopoly).

Zooming into the Canton of Zurich, which overlaps with the Mittelland or Central Plateau, chapter study area, Zurich Unterlan. The analysis is divided into three scales of analysis: the infrastructural ring, the green valley, and the farm.

Regenerative practices such as intercropping and mixed cropping are used in agroecological systems and are methods in which two or more particular crops are grown together. These techniques are related to the stability of ecosystems, human social systems, and human economic systems that comprise agriculture. By investigating and applying these innovative agricultural techniques, we achieve; a change in the architecture of the territory, the interrelations between the land and the farmer, the role of the farmer in society, and the dependence on the monopoly that furiously controls and manipulates the principles of agriculture. This chapter aims to investigate mixed-culture regenerative practices as a catalyst for a fair industry.

In order to achieve this ground-breaking change, it is important that the people who are the pillars and basis of agriculture understand not only the necessary changes in the system and the way of cultivation but also the positive impact they will have on the community and the territory. For this reason, in our future scenario, we imagine the creation of a handbook that people in agriculture and those interested in becoming the pioneers of the fair system can read and follow.

For the implementation of the fair system and the analysis of its ecological and social operations, we take the example of Zurich Unterland. The FAIRs of Zurich Unterland are defined based on the existing natural conditions that have been previously suppressed by the acceleration era of the plantations.