SIA' interests me #2: perspective on current events in agriculture

NEWS AS SEEN BY JÉRÔME DESPEY, PRESIDENT OF THE PARIS INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SHOW
 
The SIA is an amplifier

While crises are shaking up our bearings, the International Agricultural Show remains a unique place, where pride, conviviality, and authenticity rub shoulders with rural concerns and farming challenges. Behind each stand, issues and truths are expressed, but also the seeds of change. Amplifying all of this is our strength, because the SIA is above all a deeply human show, a space for meetings and exchanges where experiences and aspirations intersect, offering a real field of possibilities.

We are entering a period that is reminiscent of others! Climatic uncertainties, economic uncertainties, life uncertainties, international uncertainties. Many will have a feeling of “déjà vu”! And yet, everyone senses that French agriculture is at a turning point.

We are steadily losing our standing and our place on the international agricultural stage. I will leave the political issues aside here, preferring to focus on what our International Agricultural Show can do to support the artisans of the land.

Our nine days have many purposes, and I will not be exhaustive, but I think it is important to remember that:

• We are an effective link for promoting initiatives and innovations.
• We are a lasting and unique link for bringing agriculture and society closer together.
• We are a welcoming forum where all stakeholders in the agricultural sector can meet.
• We are an important channel through which politicians and decision-makers come in large numbers to discover the regions and terroirs of our beautiful country.

I tend to forget all the functions that our event fulfills. I like to remind people that we welcome an average of 600,000 visitors. Let's imagine together the number and type of exchanges that are possible.

In our aisles, everything is amplified. Anger and hope, wishes and demands, trade-offs and decisions, dreams and realities!

As France's leading trade show, we are aware (I am referring to the 12,000 people who work there every day) of the responsibility we have. No crisis slips through the trade show's net.

People “go up” to the show, they ‘arrive’ at the show, they “head” to the show... In any case, whatever the name, many have a message to convey under the leadership of France's largest farm. A forum for ideas, a real-time agora, a space for free exchange, we nevertheless need rules so that everyone can express themselves, with mutual respect.

Happiness, conviviality, and joy certainly have their place at the SIA; they are even part of our DNA. But we cannot ignore rural sentiment and farmers' concerns! If we are going to amplify anything, we must amplify everything! Behind each stand, there is often the expression of a problem, a concern for truth, the beginnings of change, the seeds of a solution. Yes, there is all that, and the show is proud to nurture these feelings, which may seem contradictory but are in fact complementary.

One last message that is close to my heart. Our show is described in many ways, most of them positive, but if it were ever to be renamed, it would be called “the human-first show.”

Between the breeder and the attentive Parisian, between the grain farmer and the curious student, between the market gardener and the interested retiree, between the winegrower and the young, over-informed executive from Metz or Marseille, between the fisherman and the courageous and determined single mother, anything is possible. That is our field, the field of possibilities!

Jérôme DESPEY

President of CENECA, President of the Paris International Agricultural Show, President of SIA'PRO, Organizer-owner of the World Arabian Horse Championships, President of the Paris Horse Show