Switzerland’s Farming ‘Ambassadors’

Now in its eighth year, the perennially eyebrow-raising and successful Bauernkalender (‘Folk Calendar’) is back with a new take on the idea that sex can sell agriculture.

Two calendars of scantily clad girls and boys from Switzerland’s farming community will feature photographic interpretations of classics by Swiss painters.

“I have an interest in art and there is a strong tradition in Switzerland of painters working with rural motifs,” says the calendars’ editor, Mike Helmy.

The models are either farmers themselves or farmers’ sons, daughters or spouses.

“We find it really charming to work with farmer girls and farmer boys who really stand up and say: ‘I’m proud to be a farmer and I believe in the future of farming’. We need agriculture; that’s where our food comes from,” says Helmy.

“We don’t just have pretty models; we really have ambassadors for farming.”

The calendars, with a 13,000 print run for the girls’ calendar and a 7,000 one for the boys’, are expected to sell out before Christmas.