I will present some technical information on the SPACE fair below. However first I would like to talk about the city Rennes, which hosts the fair, and the Brittany region, for which it is the capital. Britanny, which is one of the 27 regions of France, was defined as the area where the “Bretons” lived when it was under the rule of the Western Roman Empire –as it is understood from its name- and it took the name of Britania. According to type of address used by author Geoffrey of Monmouth, the islands which today comprise England, Scotland and Wales as well as Ireland were Great Britain, and these lands were called Little Britain. It was even said that the army that was commanded by the Breton hero Conan Meriadoc saved Great Britain from a Roman invasion.
Celtic tribes lived in these territories in the ancient periods and Gaullic and Breton princedoms ruled after the loss of the Roman effect. The princedoms faced intense attacks from the Vikings in this period, they failed to remove the looters from their lands for about 30 years but then they created the state of Brittany with the support they received from the King of France. Then they removed the Vikings from their lands and they started paying tax to the French King Louis IV.
They made an effort for independence from France several times. Finally Breton Duchess Anne, who was only 13 years old, was married off to the Roman Emperor Maximilian I, so she became the Roman Empress. However the french King Charles VIII deemed this an insult and a wat threat and attacked Brittany. Maximilian I could not help the oyung bride in time and the French King seized Rennes and annexed it into France completely. The king did not see this as sufficient and deeemed the marriage of the poor duchess with the Roman Emperor null and declared her as her own bride, i.e. the French Queen, with the approval of the Pope.
Anne never saw the French King as her husband and did not give the king a child until his death. However after the king died, Orleans Duke Louis XII became the king and Queen Anne, who was only 21 at the time and who did not have children, had to marry him and she was declared the Queen of France for a second time. Anne became pregnant 14 times in her life but only 2 of these children survived. During her life, which included being a queen twice and being an empress once, she used her will to preserve the autonomy of Brittany. This hard life ended at the age of 37 due to kidney stone.
Today approximately 800,000 people live in Rennes (Bretonca Roazhon), which is the capital of this history, together with its rural population. Breton and Gaul languages are still spoken in the city and ocassionally voices are heard for the Brittany region to have an autonomous administration. The Scottish referendum, which took place in the period when we were in France, was followed closely by the French government. There were fears that a possible yes vote from the Scottish referendum could constitute a precedent for the Bretons. In addition, the registration number of Rennes, which is a small and lovely Middle European city, is also 35!
The fair, which was organized in the city of Rennes in France between 15-18 September 2014, offered a rich 4-day program and list of participants. 1428 firms participated in the fair and the numbers regarding the participant firms are as follows:
The number of firms according to sectors they represent:
· Fodder Sector : 684
· Animal Farming Equipment : 365
· Animal Farming Materials (Farm administration, dispatch, harvest equipment, etc.): 357
· Animal Farming Facilities: 285
· Genetics: 227
· Energy: 167
· Waste water and fertilizer management: 150
· Animal health: 149
· Dairy farming: 52
Firm representatives from 36 different countries participated in the fair and a total of 114718 participants from 118 different countries visited the fair. The fair area comprised 11 halls and it covered an area of 116500 m2 in total, of which 5800 m2 was a closed area.
Each of the halls were devoted to a separate theme: They were named using themes such as poultry sector, fodder sector, cattle and sheep and goat farming sector, fodder raw material, additive sector and live animal market.
At the fair we met many of our colleagues from many differnet countries and as such we had the opportunity to acquire information on the practices in many different places in the world and to expand our network.
