Losing Our Virginity: Corruption in the Olive Oil Industry

Last month, Nicholas Blechman, a contributor for the New York Times, put out this infographic with the brilliantly alarming title Extra Virgin Suicide: The Adulteration of Italian Olive Oil. Much of his information was derived from the research and writing of Tom Mueller, as on his blog Truth in Olive Oil and his book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.

Against the pale green background of the slide show Blechman created, stick figures act out a simplified verison of the olive oil production process, highlighting the nefarious acts that take place along the way from European farms to your local supermarket. I say European farms and not Italian because, as it turns out, though the olive oil is labeled as “Italian Olive Oil,” often times the olives comes from other countries, such as Spain. The olive oil is pressed elsewhere and shipped to Italy, where it’s packaged as “Extra Virgin” and marked with “Imported From Italy” stamps. This false advertising is only the first horror. Some refineries have been mixing the olive oil with other cooking oils or worse yet, merely adding chemicals to vegetable oil and passing it off at olive oil. Italy has taken measures to resolve this crime of inauthenticity by deploying members of the Italian Carabinieri (their police force) to examine the oil. This process, however, is difficult because it relies on an acute sense of smell, rather than laboratory tests.

For the Italians, the degradation of olive oil and its recent bad press is damaging to an integral part of their culinary heritage. Many Italians assert they’ve been doing their best to carry on a proud tradition; the olive oil industry is suffering is a result of globalization. Small batches of authentic Italian olive oil are being made, but Italy cannot produce the quantity that the world population demands and thus, the good name of Italian oil has been sullied to satisfy the greed of outsiders. Nevertheless, the citizens of Italy are working to redeem the honor of olive oil. Legislation is circulating within the European Union to rework exportation laws so that bottles of olive oil must be labeled with the olives’ country of origin, rather than the place where the oil was packaged.

Why is this important to non-Italians? Some people might not be bothered that the bottle they purchase may or may not be olive oil, so long as it’s cheap, but this mentality is the downfall of our society. We sometimes care more about the illusion than we do the experience. In order to ensure that you’re getting a quality product, read the labels. While some phrases are meant to deceive, concrete facts – names of towns or farmers, best by dates, etc. – can help you determine what’s hiding beneath the packaging.

            

Chocolate: A (Really) Guilty Pleasure

Though Valentine’s Day may be over, the pink foil-wrapped, heart-shaped chocolates remain. For some they’re evidence of their loved ones affection, for others they’re merely a reminder of why they’re still suffering a sugar-induced headache, but few see chocolate as a political object. 

Over the past few years (while many of us continued to mindlessly binge on chocolate), a growing field of study called “cocoa-nomics” has emerged with the intention of illuminating the chocolate production process, from the cocoa bean tree to our candy bowls. This nifty interactive infographic provides a simple explanation of this process, along with some statistics on global consumption and production costs. Why are we suddenly interested in these things? In 2012, CNN filmed a documentary called Chocolate’s Child Slaves, as a part of The CNN Freedom Project. Their research reveals:

The chocolate industry is worth an estimated $110 billion a year, and yet its key commodity is grown by some of the poorest people on the planet, in plantations that can hide the worst forms of child labor.

Accurate figures are impossible to come by, but up to 800,000 children are thought to work in the cocoa sector across the Ivory Coast; children who are both a symptom of and a self-perpetuating factor in a much wider problem -- poverty.

While this may be a shock to many, efforts have been made to combat unethical practices in the cocoa industry. Some companies are working to make a change overseas, on the cocoa farms. Nestle has devised the Cocoa Plan, which aims to improve the lives of farmers, bring awareness to child labor and provide aid to the impoverished youth of Ivorian rural communities. Other organizations are working to promote ethical chocolate companies, as a means of spreading awareness and making a difference through conscious consumerism. World Vision’s No Child For Sale campaign recently released The Good Chocolate Guide, a colorful and interactive website that displays approved candy bars.


It may seem like a pain (and a bit pretentious and expensive, too) to buy only fair trade, organic, single origin chocolate, but do you really want the guilt of supporting child labor added on to the guilt of consuming empty calories?

Only Organic: A Fight Against (Un)Natural Food

Over the last two weeks, videos began airing on TV as part of a campaign organized by the newly formed coalition of organic farmers and food companies called Only Organic. Their message comes across loud and clear in several short, satirical commercials, such as the one below:

It is the aim of the group – which includes familiar names such as Annie’s, Stonyfield, and Organic Valley – “to cultivate a better understanding of what being organic really means and the environmental and health benefits choosing organic provides.” Having undergone great lengths to achieve the rigorous standards demanded by the USDA organic certification, these companies are working to bring awareness to the malpractices of “Big Food” corporations and make the food industry as a whole more transparent.

As you might deduce from their name, one matter that is particularly important to Only Organic is the distinction between natural and organic products. The issue of how to define natural becomes ever more convoluted. Can genetically modified organisms be classified as natural? What about animals that were raised with antibiotics? The FDA has not developed adefinition for the term natural. In fact, many food products that boast “natural” in large, bright fonts are as far removed from the soil as the packages they come in.

The word “natural” is one of the more emotive descriptors used in food advertising, known to provide consumers with a false sense of healthfulness. However, in recent years, people are beginning to suspect they’ve been duped – and a number of lawsuits have arisen as a result. Because of this, the word “natural” is becoming less prominent on supermarket shelves.

In 2009, 30.4 percent of new food products and 45.5 percent of new beverage products released in the U.S. were labeled all natural. [In 2013], 21.1 percent of new food products and 34 percent of new beverage products carried that label.

While this study doesn’t prove that Americans are eating any more healthily, it shows that we’re paying a bit more attention to the shiny stuff that wraps up the things we love to eat and advertising agencies are reacting to vocal complaints about deceptive marketing. A little more skepticism on the part of consumers, inspired by campaigns like Only Organic, and we might just make a turn for the better in the food industry.

Food Deserts: Go Hungry or Get Happy (Meals)

One week ago today marked the first meeting of a house committee that was formed to bring "food deserts" in the United States to the attention of American government officials. Newsobserver.com reported that members of Congress were educated by "officials connected with public health, social services, agriculture, economic development and local food systems," on this issue that many had never heard of before. 

As defined by the USDA: 

Food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. The lack of access contributes to a poor diet and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

While the public discourse on health in America has been focused on the recent failures of the Affordable Health Care Act (on the Republican Side) and the triumphs of Michelle Obama’s battle against childhood obesity (on the Democratic side), food deserts have been quietly emerging across the nation. Though the first lady has made efforts to bring attention to this issue as a part of her Let's Move! initiative, no mention of it was made in the State of the Union. The fact that many American citizens are unable to affordably, conveniently obtain nutritious food products remains almost wholly unconsidered by people who have the privilege to be ignorant.

In cities such as Los Angeles, food deserts are scattered across the map (as seen below) in categorically “low-income communities,” such as Compton or Inglewood, not far from areas such as Silver Lake or West Hollywood, where farmer’s markets bustle and grocery stores abound with fresh produce. 

The Food Empowerment Project reported that to combat this disparity,

In 2008, the Los Angeles City Council voted to enact a moratorium on new fast food outlets in a 32-square-mile zone encompassing some of South L.A.’s most arid food deserts… Councilmembers subsequently passed another measure offering grocery stores and sit-down restaurants serving healthier meals financial incentives to open up in underserved communities. 

The success of measures such as these can already be seen locally as more and more healthful food options become available, but in order to see a national improvement the issue needs to be brought into the light (and I don’t mean the light of those infamous golden arches).