The Sacramento Bee ran a story yesterday about an international olive oil conference, "Beyond Extra Virgin," to be held at UC Davis this week. Also on the SacBee site is a six-minute video in which the reporter and Alexandra Kicenik Devarenne, an olive consultant and member of the UC Davis Olive Center advisory board, go over the basics of olive oil sampling.
(The article, sans video, also appeared on individual.com, flanked by an advertisement for "Sciabica's Extra Virgin Oil of the Olive." Food ads have always appeared in the newspaper food section; garden ads adjoin garden stories. But this is the first time I've seen such a specific connection between a product and a story from a newspaper like the Sacramento Bee.)
The article gave credit to the grape harvester for boosting olive oil production in California, which grew by 50 percent this year. Currently, 99 percent of olive oil consumed in America is imported.
CDFA secretary A.G. Kawamura told reporter Gina Kim that olive oil production has a place in California.
"Any time we can compete with imports, when we can become domestic producers, that's a good thing because that keeps the dollars in this country," Kawamura was quoted.
Kim also spoke to Paul Vossen, a UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor who has researched and promoted California olive oil production. He said the primary obstacle to the growth of the California olive oil industry is a lack of consumer awareness about the superiority of the local product.
"A good analogy is wine," Vossen was quoted. "When you first started drinking wine, you had to educate your palate. People just need to go out and try and buy and use olive oil over a period of 10 years. It's not going to happen overnight."
For more on the California olive oil industry, plus videos about olive oil tasting and the environmental benefits of California olive oil, see California olive oil is worth the splurge on the UC ANR Web site.
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