International Agricultural Show

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The Salon International de l’Agriculture /salõ nasjɔnal də lagʁikyltyːʁ/ or International Agricultural Show, held once a year in Paris around the month of February, is one of the world’s largest and most important agricultural shows, drawing larger crowds than any other exposition in Paris except the Foire de Paris (Paris Fair).

France is a world leader in agriculture, both in terms of production volume and in terms of technology. This is very apparent at the agricultural show, where the sheer number and variety of exhibits demonstrates just how advanced the country is in this domain. One thing’s for sure: France isn’t at any risk of running out of food at any time in the foreseeable future! The fact that just about every square metre of the country is rich farmland helps, of course.

In this picture, you see a steer (I think!) munching on some hay in one of the livestock exhibits. There are farm animals of all types, of course: cattle, sheep, hogs, draft horses, goats, chickens, you name it. Many of the animals are prizewinners, and there is even a photo studio for taking showcase photographs of winning animals with their owners. Behind the animals you can see many of the fancy exhibits set up by various vendors, and you can see how large the building is. The exposition fills half a dozen such buildings.

In addition to the livestock exhibits and shows, there are exhibits of farm equipment, hundreds of vendor stands and booths, government agricultural exhibits, exhibits for and by growers of fruits and vegetables and staple cereals, perfume makers, beekeepers, and just about everything else you can imagine. An entire section of the exposition is devoted to regions of France, and is a great place to pig out if you are hungry, with delicious foods from every corner of the country.

This exposition even includes a dairy. Since the cows at the exposition have to be milked twice a day, a squeaky-clean, high-tech miniature dairy is set up for the purpose. The cows are milked in the morning and in the evening, the milk is collected, pasteurized, refrigerated, and packed into cartons, and visitors buy the milk to take home, often only 30 minutes or so after it is milked from the cow. It’s delicious, too—great with hyper-fattening butter cakes from Brittany, for example. There’s always a line in front of the dairy (the milk is of superlative quality and is sold pretty much at cost).

One of this year’s attractions was a completely automated milking machine, of which I have a photo, if you are interested.

Photographed on March 4, 2000.