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Jamie's olive oil passion 'creating environmental catastrophe'
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard26.08.08
TV chefs such as Jamie Oliver are causing "environmental catastrophe" by fuelling demand for olive oil, it was claimed today.
Parts of Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal are turning into deserts and suffering water shortages because of the intensive olive farming that has developed to slake British thirst for the oil, the Ecologist magazine says.
Since Oliver and fellow chefs have used olive oil in most recipes demand has soared. Between 2000 and 2005 UK sales increased by 39 per cent. More is spent on it than all other cooking oils.
But the idyllic images of olive groves on the front of bottles mask the true industrial nature of farming the fruit, it is claimed.
Trees are densely planted in big tracts of irrigated lowland plains and harvested by machines that shake the trunks. This uses more water and chemicals than traditional farms on upland terraces.
The Ecologist says: "To meet this new appetite mass-market brands are produced intensively so supermarkets can sell in high volumes at lower prices.Demand for mass-produced oil is making it a struggle for traditional farms to be economically viable."
The World Wildlife Fund said in 2001 that the more intensive plantations were of "little or no conservation value and create environmental problems — desertification, pollution from agri-chemicals and depletion of water resources."
Guy Beaufoy, a consultant on agricultural and environmental policies in Europe, said the situation was "an environmental catastrophe".
He said Spain was suffering its fourth consecutive year of drought but more than 80 per cent of the water was devoted to irrigated crops.
He said: "People are drilling water resources not touched for thousands of years — all for a few more olives."
Italy and Greece are also expanding olive production even though ground water has been severely depleted.
Britons are advised to buy organic olive oil produced on traditional farms.
Reader views (1)
What a load of rubbish, Mr Beaufoy and the ecologist have obviously been spending too much time in the sun. The only problem olive oil farmers have is to not get stung by the supermarkets who are profiting from the exposure chefs like Jamie Oliver have on the public who push the benefits of using olive oil to the public.
- Mr.S.Port, Athens
