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Italy’s olive crisis intensifies as deadly tree disease spreads

nature.com

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

#61

Post by lbeltrame »

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...

The problem was not only related to the (ridicolous) attempt to indict, but rather with the fact that nowadays in my country (at least for the media), being prosecuted means you are guilty.

Another, equally embarassing story (a little off-topic in the context of olive oil ;) is the prosecution of Ilaria Capua (another scientist who had a bad encounter with the justice system).

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

#62

Post by vanderZwan »

docbrown wrote: post #58
vanderZwan wrote: post #53

People outside of Italy are probably not aware of how seriously they take the topic of olive oil over there. The label "extra vergine" increases the price so much that there is a huge economic incentive for fraud. To combat this they have a taste police (literally) that checks that olive oil samples are not secretly mixes of fresh and old oil together. They are... quite opinionated, as you can see this exchange from…

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.

I think that in the northern parts of Europe we still seem to be pretty oblivious, so I would limit that to the Mediterranean area. And having tasted proper local food during my trips there, I can't exactly blame the people from there for being picky. Like you said, the taste difference is huge, and there also is a large romantic component to it: most recipes are quite simple, but rely on using fresh ingredients. It's very anti-industrial by nature.

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

#63

Post by vanderZwan »

fmihaila wrote: post #60
vanderZwan wrote: post #53

People outside of Italy are probably not aware of how seriously they take the topic of olive oil over there. The label "extra vergine" increases the price so much that there is a huge economic incentive for fraud. To combat this they have a taste police (literally) that checks that olive oil samples are not secretly mixes of fresh and old oil together. They are... quite opinionated, as you can see this exchange from…

> The label "extra vergine" increases the price of oil so much that there is a huge economic incentive for fraud. It's also a huge economic incentive for the Mafia to get involved, according to the Financial Times: https://outline.com/bH8KVt . It is a huge problem, and it doesn't stop at olive oil.

Aren't "fraud" (on the scale we are talking about) and "the Mafia gets involved" kind of the same thing over there?

EDIT: I remember reading the article you linked, it's really good! Goes into much more than just olive oil fraud.

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

#64

Post by lbeltrame »

grigjd3 wrote: post #24
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...

Italy's relationship with science is mired in corruption, enough so that Italian scientists often move away to find jobs.

> Italy's relationship with science is mired in corruption

Not any more than any other countries. I've dealt with many people from all over Europe thanks to a particular project I was involved in, and bad behaviors were truly cross-country (misappropriation of results, pressure to change authorship, "games" to move funding to allies or away from enemies...).

EDIT: What I mean is not that everyone is bad, but that rather bad behaviors even in my country are in the median with the others.

As a disclaimer, I am a scientist that is still working in Italy.

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

#65

Post by chicob »

jimbokun wrote: post #47
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 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 agriculture, so the interdisciplinarity never ends!

The "because it's interesting" is also an accurate answer!

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

#67

Post by quantum_magpie »

Phillips126 wrote: post #55
Kurtz79 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are still selling an inferior product, claiming that is something it is not. In Italy or Spain, you can find "non extra-virgin" olive oil sold as well, although at a lower price.

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.

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

#69

Post by cataphract »

commentor10 wrote: post #66

Is it time to hoard good olive oil?

Olive oil is a fresh product that needs to be consumed within a relatively short time span (preferably within a year or so) — after that it starts getting rancid. So this is not really an option.

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

#70

Post by btilly »

vanderZwan wrote: post #53

People outside of Italy are probably not aware of how seriously they take the topic of olive oil over there. The label "extra vergine" increases the price so much that there is a huge economic incentive for fraud. To combat this they have a taste police (literally) that checks that olive oil samples are not secretly mixes of fresh and old oil together. They are... quite opinionated, as you can see this exchange from…

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."

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