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The situation with olive oil this year is bad... so bad that some farmers are using fake GPS olives to track stolen olives: https://greekreporter.com/2023/10/23
by NKosmatos 3y ago
The situation with olive oil this year is bad... so bad that some farmers are using fake GPS olives to track stolen olives: https://greekreporter.com/2023/10/23/greek-farmers-use-gps-technology-olive-theft/ https://greekreporter.com/2023/10/23/greek-farmers-use-gps-t...
The price for virgin olive oil used to be 3-4 €/liter in the last couple of years and now it has soared to above 10 €/L. You can find some local producers (relatives/friends) selling for around 8 €/L but most people in the big cities will never see such a low price, on the contrary it will reach them for around 15 €/L :-(
Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal (among other Mediterranean countries) rely heavily on olive oil for food preparation and this will affect prices and inflation.
- Spivak 3y agoIs there some cultural reason this won't drive people to alternatives and they'll just eat the cost? Food has got to be one of the most elastic things in all of human history with diets shifting wildly over short periods of time depending on what's available and affordable.
- axioms_End 3y agoI think olive oil is not that easy to replace as it's often used as a condiment due to it's unique taste.
- tw04 3y agoI would imagine much like "truffle oil" - you can take a concentrated extract and add it to a neutral oil to get the same flavor. If it stays high for long enough I have to imagine someone will release a competing product.
- s0rce 3y agoDo people like the fake truffle oil or just pretend because it seems fancy and exotic? I can't stand it, way too strong.
- gnicholas 3y agoPerhaps, but unlike truffle oil, which people eat for the flavor (and prestige/faux prestige), many people choose olive oil for health reasons. If you make some other kind of oil taste like olive oil, those people would not buy it.
- MeImCounting 3y agoAs far as I know those 'health reasons' are mostly propaganda and come from the new-agey sort of faux health circles. Correct me if I'm wrong I don't know much about the health of various oils this is just the impression I have gotten.
- vel0city 3y agoThe ratios of different types of fats in oils (e.g., saturated vs unsaturated, mono- vs polyunsaturated, etc) do have different metabolic processes and effects, that's not any kind of new-agey or faux health stuff. The level of impact of such things is definitely still actively studied, but some fats do generally seem worse for you to consume than others. Now, anyone arguing eating a bottle of olive oil a week will cure your cancer is obviously full of it, but choosing different oils because of ratios of saturated fats and what not isn't entirely new-agey fluff.
- bobthepanda 3y agoYes, while “heart-healthy” is overdoing it a little, there isn’t much of a debate that olive oil is less bad than, say, lard.
- GeoAtreides 3y agoJust so you know, the burden of proof lies with the person making a claim, in this case you, claiming the health benefits of olive oil are 'propaganda'. If you think you don't know enough to make a claim, that's fine, you can always a nice neutral question, like: What are the health benefits of olive oil?
- 3y ago
- kbar13 3y agotruffle oil takes awful tho
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lawlessone 3y agoFlavoring extracts won't change that all these different oils have different smoke points and different ratios of fats. e.g Walnut oil can be used a salad dressing , heating it is bad.
- potatopatch 3y agoOlive oil has a lower smoke point than cheaper oils so faking olive oil has been pretty easy.. I don't actually buy Italian olive oil since anyone who is faking oil internationally would be pretty crazy to make less by selling it as Spanish or Greek olive oil.
- GuB-42 3y agoBut you don't use that much oil as a condiment. I think most oil is used for frying, or other high temperature applications. Traditional Mediterranean cooking uses olive oil for everything, and at high temperatures, to be honest, I think it is a waste as you don't get its characteristic taste. We once did a fondue with extra virgin olive oil (we usually use cheaper oil for that, but that's the only thing we had left), and we got essentially none of the taste.
- 4gotunameagain 3y ago> most oil is used for frying, or other high temperature applications. This is incorrect. The majority of olive oil is used in foods that are cooked in the oven, or on the stove top (or pressure cooker) source: decades lived in (around?) the Mediterranean
- himinlomax 3y agoOlive oil is uniquely healthy compared to available alternatives. Mostly monounsatured fat, low omega-6. Polyunsaturated fats found in so-called vegetable oils are associated with nasty things, see https://www.zeroacre.com/white-papers/how-vegetable-oil-makes-us-fat https://www.zeroacre.com/white-papers/how-vegetable-oil-make...
- s0rce 3y agoThat entire website is going on about seed oils being evil... do you have a legitimate (peer reviewed extensive study in a reputable journal) source?
- WD40forRust 3y ago[flagged]
- kornhole 3y agoI get most of my calories from fat and basically stick to olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and animal fats to stay healthy. Olive oil has no healthy flavorful substitute that is liquid at room temperature.
- timwaagh 3y agoYes. They have considered it essential for good health since forever so they are reluctant to say 'sure we can make do with other oil'. More recently that belief has been spreading because the data seems to prove them right. This is driving prices up.
- JaumeGreen 3y agoPeople who can't afford it have been using sunflower oil for lots of things, mostly for frying. Normal salads, on the other hand, is olive oil or nothing. Not counting things like Caesar's salad, "ensaladilla", ... and other that have special sauces. The taste isn't the same, just as it's not the same the taste of a good olive oil from a normal one. Pig fat has been on decline for a long time, but it's still used for some things. Butter is not that cheap, margarine isn't either, and it's not as good (in either taste or "health" reasons). Olive oil is a staple in our kitchens, and things should change a lot before we stop using it. It's like telling Asian people to change and not use soya when it becomes expensive.
- goatforce5 3y agoJust to echo what you said: I was in Portugal a couple of months ago, and our local tour guide said the drought conditions meant we should expect to pay 3x the price for olive oil over the next year or two.
- garyclarke27 3y agoThere's No drought in Portugal now - It's been raining non-stop for the last month and the summer was quite cool this year.
- goatforce5 3y agoI was there ~2 months ago, near Faro. Our driver said they had had very little rain in the past 3 years. He showed us empty creeks and rivers, etc. And the area certainly looked very dry. It looks like it rained quite a bit in the past month, though, so if that has turned things around for them, then I am very pleased.
- ChumpGPT 3y agoI thought I was getting a deal at Costco for $14 a liter....
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jancsika 3y agoIf you're getting a deal on olive oil, chances are you're not getting a deal on olive oil.
- pklausler 3y agoBut Kirkland has a good reputation (deservedly? don't know) for authentic product labeling. I buy a lot of EVOO there myself, and think highly of the quality.
- anjel 3y ago$8.99 a litre at TJs as of this evening, and TJs suppliers don't mess with quality because quality matters and TJs pays on delivery while all their competitors in the grocery biz pay net 30.
- pvaldes 3y agoWow, the GPS olives are a fascinating solution for a complex problem