Agromafia is a term many learned in the 60 Minutes story on January 3, 2016, kicking off the new year with an olive oil expose.
60 Minutes, together with Tom Mueller (author of Extravirginity), and the Italian government’s “Food FBI” revealed the involvement of the Mafia in food production and distribution. And, it’s not just olive oil. Similar issues exist with counterfeit Italian wine and cheese.
Grocery store olive oils, with name brands you know, have a very high rate of, well, not being extra virgin olive oil. They call it phoney olive oil. The transcript and video are available here.
It’s easy to fool the mass market. (Read and view How to Buy Olive Oil).
Our small olive oil producers are not interested in selling their oil as a commodity.
Our producers submit lab tests and sensory tests. More importantly, they win major competitions with the same olive oil (exceeding lab standards) and they excel at producing great olive oil. (Click here to see Award Winning Olive Oils at Olio2go).
There’s no tampering with our gems. And, quality doesn’t come cheaply.
“If you’re paying seven bucks or eight bucks for a bottle of Italian extra virgin olive oil,” he [Guy Campanile with 60 Minutes] says, “it’s probably not Italian extra-virgin.”
