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Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

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Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#91

Post by hinkley »

quantum_magpie wrote: post #67
Phillips126 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a sad state of today's food products. Honey in particular is often fraudulent containing syrups and sugars to add to volume while still being marketed as "Pure Honey". Worst of all, it is getting harder to detect the authenticity in modern labs as "honey factories" continue to develop new ways to throw the test results.

If it's been packaged for longer than a month and is still liquid -- it's fake. Real honey crystallizes quite quickly.

Because to keep it from crystallizing, you have to filter it so hard that it is indistinguishable from fake honey laced with real honey.

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#92

Post by hinkley »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #40
andrenotgiant wrote: post #22

Olive Wood is really beautiful and expensive, I wonder if this will drive a decrease in the price of it. In the US there is a special variety of pine killed by Mountain Pine Beetles that is relatively cheap but liked by woodworkers because the fungus that kills it leaves interesting blue streaks : https://www.sustainablelumberco.com/2015/03/beetle-kill-pine...

Reminds me of the burl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burl It's basically a kind of cancer inside the tree, but it's highly prized because it looks pretty.

Spalted maple is a fungal decay, halted before the wood becomes too unstable to work.

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#93

Post by vanderZwan »

chicob wrote: post #65
jimbokun wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what brought you to Hacker News? It's fascinating the variety of people who contribute here, and I'm wondering what would bring a Portuguese farmer to a site centered around technology and entrepreneurship. (I suppose I could equally ask why this site would be discussing a bacterial outbreak in Italian olive trees, and the answer could be "because it's interesting" to both questions.)

I really like Hacker News, and I usually read my tech-related news here first. Farming is kind of the family business, and I love it. I am also a physicist by training, and thus my interest in technology in general. Agriculture is becoming increasingly technological, and everything from farming gadgets to John Deere tractors hacking has come up many times. There are even some Plasma Physics applications to agricultur…

> There are even some Plasma Physics applications to agriculture, so the interdisciplinarity never ends!

You can't just casually mention this without further explanation! :D

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#94

Post by mturmon »

xbryanx wrote: post #11

Italy has a messy history listening to and even jailing its scientists, as they go about the normal process of empiricism. https://www.nature.com/news/italian-seismologists-cleared-of...

This is not really a good example, because the government official who headed that commission was indeed using the "scientific" process to reach a pre-decided conclusion.

The story you linked lays it all out, but it can't really be reduced to "jailing its scientists".

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#95

Post by swsieber »

chicob wrote: post #23

I'm an olive and almond producer in Portugal. In preparation for this very serious issue, since that the only thing I can do is to minimize the risk of infection, I tell all personnel to spray bleach on trimming scissors for each tree, the case of high density orchards, and for every 10-15 trees (or each row) in super high density orchards. I also try to monitor for infection vectors like Cicadellidae, and for possib…

Zebra mussels are a big problem where I grew up. The bay of Green Bay is very unfriendly to the barefoot swimmer because of them (they leave sharp little shells behind). I can't really think of a way to get rid of them short of making some sort of robotic fleet to go and kill them all.

Even worse, the DNR doesn't really want to get involved for fear of upsetting the ecosystem. Someone went as far as to make a machine that makes faux sand from zebra mussel shells (which pile up everywhere along the shore), but he got shutdown because of the unknown environmental impact.

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#96

Post by ip26 »

airstrike wrote: post #72
btilly wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To that I'd suggest reading https://lifehacker.com/the-most-and-least-fake-extra-virgin-... . Since then I've bought California olive oil and giggled at all of the Italian brands. About the article, my honest first thought was, "Does it matter? They already weren't selling olive oil in the first place, now they just have to pretend harder."

"You might raise your eyebrows at the conclusion that Australian and California extra virgin olive oils are purer than most Italian olive oils, since the research was partially funded by the California Olive Ranch and the California Olive Oil Council and has ties with the Australian Olive Association"

Perhaps, but that's five years old and there's been no serious refutation I've heard of.

It's not like there aren't legitimate reasons to back a study that might reveal something you've long suspected, e.g. that your competitors are frauds...

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#97

Post by reaperducer »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #54
gpderetta wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We (for small values of we) started early: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair

Laws of gravity don't work in Italy either, Pope John XXI in 13th century had them declared null and void /heresy. That Pope that died when the roof collapsed on him. Seriously, Italy is an old fashioned country, full of corruption and cutting corners. Scientists do get in the way with facts and other nonsense :). That explains everything IMO.

Laws of gravity don't work in Italy either, Pope John XXI in 13th century had them declared null and void /heresy.

Smells like another internet-spread revisionist history rumor.

His Wikipedia article makes him sound like a scientist, himself:

"Wherever he studied, he concentrated on medicine, theology, logic, physics, metaphysics, and Aristotle's dialectic. He is traditionally and usually identified with the medical author Peter of Spain, an important figure in the development of logic and pharmacology."

"To secure the necessary quiet for his medical studies, he had an apartment added to the papal palace at Viterbo, to which he could retire when he wished to work undisturbed."

The Catholic Church, even in its early days, was/is loaded with scientists and scholars. The concept of the Church being anti-science is a more recent internet-fueled meme.

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#98

Post by hinkley »

chicob wrote: post #23

I'm an olive and almond producer in Portugal. In preparation for this very serious issue, since that the only thing I can do is to minimize the risk of infection, I tell all personnel to spray bleach on trimming scissors for each tree, the case of high density orchards, and for every 10-15 trees (or each row) in super high density orchards. I also try to monitor for infection vectors like Cicadellidae, and for possib…

I’m unfamiliar with the particulars here. Do you have to plant olives and almonds in different fields or do they mostly like the same sun soil and water conditions?

There has been a push by some people to plant multiple perennials in the same fields to improve soil quality but also to reduce the ease of spread of pathogens (because the next potential host is far away by insect and spore standards).

Would it make sense in this case, especially if you’re cleaning tools as a prophylaxis as well?

Re: Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

#99

Post by peterwwillis »

giardini wrote: post #71
docbrown wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to Italy, Europe as a whole is pretty picky when it comes to olive oil. As an anglo who was introduced to authentic olive oil imported from Greece.. there is a very serious distinct taste difference between cheap and legitimate olive oil.

docbrown says> "there is a very serious distinct taste difference between cheap and legitimate olive oil." Is there a taste/test that someone like me, who is a neophyte and definitely not an expert, could distinguish/use?

It should be "active" in your mouth, a bit peppery, and the taste should linger for a minute or more; it should taste like it's alive. It should be just slightly bitter and you should note a grassy flavor/aroma, like good Japanese green tea, as well as a distinct olive smell. It should be only barely acidic, as inferior oils have more acid.

If you're buying in a supermarket, you are almost always buying oil blends from multiple countries. Read the back of the label where a guide tells you where the oil came from; if you're lucky you can find one bottle that only came from one country. If at all possible, check the websites of the different options and see what production methods they use. Go with either first cold pressed (no added heat, pressed with mats to extract oil) or 2-centrifuge process.

If you're buying in an oil and vinegar tasting room, sample everything and go with what tastes best to you, because that's mostly the purpose of buying EVOO (in addition to the nutritional benefits of well produced EVOO). Ask the seller more questions and you will probably find that almost all the oils there are centrifuge-made, and they'll have maybe one bottle of mat-pressed oil in the back that's more expensive, and probably tastes drastically different than the rest.

You basically want to buy an expensive EVOO, and a cheap olive oil; the difference being that you would use regular olive oil for cooking, and EVOO for flavoring.

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