Olive oil consumption leading to ’serious environmental problem’

UNITED KINGDOM-Parts of Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal are turning into deserts and suffering water shortages because of the intense olive farming that has developed in the area, according to The Ecologist magazine.

The magazine says trees are densely packed, planted in massive irrigated lowland plains and harvested by machines that shake the trunks, which uses more water and chemicals than traditional farms on upland terraces.

It says: “To meet this new appetite mass-market brands are produced intensively, so supermarkets can sell it in high volumes at lower prices. Demand for cheap, mass-produced oil is making it a struggle for the smaller, traditional farms to be economically viable.”

Between 2000 and 2005, UK olive oil sales have risen by 39 per cent and more money is spent on it than all other cooking oils. A World Wildlife Fund report from 2001 said the more intensive plantations are of “little or no conservation value, and create environmental problems - desertification, pollution from agrichemicals, depletion of water resources.”

Guy Beaufoy, a consultant on agricultural and environmental policies in Europe said the situation was “an environmental catastrophe”.

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Source: The Telegraph

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