4 ms·
I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain. It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used
by nextos 10y ago
I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain.
It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used to use cheap cooking oils switched to olive oil after the scandal. (For those who are not familiar with the matter, the scandal involved using chemicals on industrial-grade rapeseed oil to remove dyes and re-sell it to consumers.)
- ethomson 10y agoI'm sorry if I misunderstand you, but your comment quite suggests that it has _not_ gotten any press if the takeaway is to switch oils. Are you suggesting that you still see evidence of people responding to the misinformation reported in this article? And that the news is still reporting this as fact?
- nextos 10y agoNews does report toxic oil as a fact. But most people are familiar with other hypotheses, including the Bayer pesticides one. I've seen compelling first-hand evidence that oil was the culprit, but I'm open to other hypotheses too.
- willvarfar 10y agoThe article says it wasn't cooking oil, and that cooking oil was the scapegoat coverup. Politicians let people die by not tackling the root causes. And, scarily, it says that pesticide use in Spanish fruit is still high, and that a similar mass poisoning recently in Mexico was also covered up and another non-cause blamed.
- maus42 10y agorecently when the article was written (which was in 2001)
- douche 10y ago> switched to olive oil after the scandal Do you actually have olive oil in your olive oil? In the U.S., most of the olive oil for sale is either misgraded or adulterated[1] [1] http://time.com/money/4326354/fake-olive-oil-food-fraud/ http://time.com/money/4326354/fake-olive-oil-food-fraud/
- harperlee 10y agoIf I recall correctly Spain is the biggest exporter of olive oil, with Italy and Tunisia somewhere behind (and in fact most of the Italian exports are just Spanish oil, Italian branded). It makes way less economic sense to adulterate the olive oil in Spain when it is not a gourmet import, but a staple daily produce. On the pricier premium virgen extra oil there has been some fraud, nonetheless (in Spanish: http://m.europapress.es/sociedad/consumo-00648/noticia-ocu-acusa-nueve-marcas-aceite-oliva-enganar-consumidor-20121025122232.html http://m.europapress.es/sociedad/consumo-00648/noticia-ocu-a...).
- zb 10y agoI was just in Spain, and was told that prior to the financial crisis much of the olive oil produced in Italy and Greece was made from olives grown in Spain. (Spain is a massive producer of olives.) After the crisis they stopped exporting olives and started bottling their own oil, which was the cause of the shortage in supply of extra virgin oil from e.g. Italy that led to organised crime getting into the fake olive oil business. So there's every reason to think that Spain in particular is awash in genuine olive oil.
- lovemenot 10y agoSo, a result of the crisis was that Spain decided circumstances had changed such that foreigners' cash was needed less than before? Your facts may be right (I don't know) but if so, Spanish authorities made a basic economic error in that decision.
- edu 10y agoNo, businessmen realized it's more profitable to process the olives and sell the oil than just selling the olives.