- Location
- Hammerwich
I was invited to Expo 2015 by New Holland in September. It was a very interesting experience, so I thought I would share it with all of you and I hope you enjoy the read and the pictures.
Now for those who don’t know much about the Expo (which included me), I’ll explain a little more.
The Expo isn’t an Agricultural Show, but it is most definitely about agriculture. It has been running from 1st May and continues on until 31st October. I’d not been to an Expo before so I had no idea what to expect and if I’m honest I was a little dubious about exactly what they are trying to achieve. The Theme is “Feed the Planet, Energy for Life”. Very big statements. But only 10% of the people who visit the show work in Agriculture. 90% are the general public. So you probably get the idea that they are trying to educate. As with all countries, the general public seem to know very little about where food comes from and how it is produced. And a lot of people have been visiting have been visiting this event. Up to 200,000 people a day. The UK stand told me they had had over 5 million visitors already. And they were just one of over 100 stands.
The Expo itself is made up of pavilions (stands). Countries and organisations can have a pavilion where they can educate the general public about farming and food in their respective countries. I would say it would take you a week at least to visit every Pavilion. To give you an idea of the scale, this is the map. The long walkway running from left to right feels like it’s about a mile long.
So education is what it’s all about. Every country and organisation has gone about it differently, but they are all trying to teach people about the challenges farmer’s face, where our food comes from and how farming is changing to make it more efficient. It’s not an easy task, if you were given a blank piece of paper, how would you go about it? I know I’d struggle. But nonetheless, every country had gone about it in its own way. Another issue is that the pavilions all have to be able to be moved at the end of the show and therefore couldn’t use much in the way of concrete and had to be “sustainable”.
The Zero Pavilion is where it all starts when you enter the Expo. It is a walk through the history of farming and it’s mightily impressive, just by its scale.
I’ve included a couple of pictures. What becomes clear is that farming was a very people intensive activity in the past, with most people trying to feed themselves, moving to a structure now, where the few feed the many. I feel this is so relevant now, with most people knowing so little about how food is created and more depressingly, I’m not sure how many in the UK actually care.
As you walked in a video played on a massive wall, it depicted how farming took place over 10,000 years ago on an "each to their own" attitude.
You were then taken through the types and stages of farming.
To finally the commodity driven market of today.
For the general public (the queue was over an hour most of the time to see this pavilion) - it was a good way to take people through farming. Although a massive simplification, it got the message across.
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