Paleo crowd, 2009
What it is: The largest outdoor music festival in Switzerland, started in 1976, with over 4.3 million concert-goers since then. In 2008, the audience was 227,000 strong, and there were 146 performances on six stages.
Volunteers, all 4,062 of them, helped to make the experience a great one for all. According to a survey in 2008, 59 percent of concert-goers came from the Lake Geneva region.
Title: Wine and chocolate: a family affair
Location: Romainmôtier, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A group of nine Côtes-de-l’Orbes wine producers are presenting their wines at the Caveau de Romainmôtier, along with chocolates from Pascale Philippe’s chocolate shop Passionnément Chocolat in Yverdon-les-Bains.
What’s really special about this is that you can bring the whole family. This wine tasting doesn’t have to be an all-adult affair. The Formule jeune lets under-18ers taste four different chocolates and two different artisanal juices from the region for CHF6.
Start Date: 18 Jul 2009
End Date: 30 Sep 2009
Shadu, age 3, has lost his mother, DR Congo (image: ICRC June 2009, P Yazdi)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More than half of the civilians directly touched by the world’s eight major conflicts have been displaced, and half say they have lost contact with a family member. One in five have lost their livelihood.
These are some of the findings of a statistical and interview set of surveys ordered by the International Red Cross (ICRC), based in Geneva, to ascertain the extent to which civilians today are affected by major conflicts.
The greatest fears mentioned by people surveyed:
By Jared Bloch
Writer/Director Peter Kerekes
What happens to the war effort when the Army chef spoils the food? As one character in Peter Kerekes “Cooking History” proclaims, “there is no war without food.” And maybe no successful war campaign without good food.
The premise for this alternately wry and sobering movie evolved out of a conversation between Kerekes and his father. “The idea was to collect stories from ordinary people, and to show how they can, and have changed history,” Kerekes told Geneva Lunch during a conversation on the final day of the 2009 Visions du Réel Film Festivalin Nyon.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Migros is adding, in coming weeks, a new product line that features high quality at a low cost, called M-Classic, says the company. The new lineup, with some 600 new products by the end of the year, will be easily identifiable by its packaging.
Title: Geneve-Saveurs gastronomy workshops
Location: Geneva, route de Lausanne
Link out: Click here
Description: Workshops and tasting sessions: oils, wine, chocolate and more with some of Switzerland’s top experts
Start Date: 28 Feb 2009
Start Time: 10:00
End Date: 01 Mar 2009
Nestle profits up
Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nestlé has announced net profits of CHF18 billion, a 69.4% increase over 2007. Consoliated sales for the year were CHF 110b, of which CHF102b were in the food and beverage arm of the business. The company says its very strong growth has allowed it to continue its three-year CHF25 billion share buyback programme.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A battle has been brewing among supermarket chains, with lower prices the most obvious benefit to consumers. Migros Tuesday morning announced that it will lower the prices of 150 items in order to ensure its prices remain lower than those of its competitors.
Title: Bizarre food workshop
Location: Morges, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A food workshop aimed to awaken your taste buds.
Start Date: 20 Nov 2008
End Date: 22 Nov 2008
A chef in West Yorkshire, age 33, died, possibly from a heart attack, after eating a super-hot chilli sauce. He had challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest to see who could eat the hottest sauce. The young man had just passed a medical fitness test for work. Sydney Morning Herald. In a separate story, in May 2008 Science Daily reported that researchers at Oxford University have developed a carbon nanotechnology that makes it possible to measure the heat in chilli peppers.
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – The Swiss have been increasing their consumption of fresh vegetables and in 2007 they ate a record 75 kg per person, with carrots (8.94 kg per person) heading the list, followed by tomatoes, with 8.48 kg. Lightweight iceberg lettuce comes in third, with a mere 3.93kg per person. Source: Swiss truck gardening centre.
