Towards a paradigm for the convergence of production, marketing and environmental protection in the field of the organic olive oil production chain- Conclusions from the BIOLMED project (original) (raw)
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Within the project BIOLMED, an empirical study was conducted. The empirical study involved the design of a questionnaire about innovations in Organic Olive Grove. The questionnaire was distributed to 200 farmers that are specialised in organic agriculture in Greece. The results of the fulfilled questionnaires were input in a database and then were electronically analysed. The analysis of the results revealed the farmers’ profile and educational level, methods of cultivation and environmental management, harvesting, transportation, oil processing and packaging, quality, marketing and labelling. The analysis concluded that the organic olive oil production chain appears to have become “a peak of the iceberg”, i.e. a pioneering paradigm, for the implementation and convergence of the majority of these policies under a common denominator. The majority of innovations pioneered within/for the organic olive oil production chain may, and are increasingly becoming, adopted by the conventional ...
Frontiers in sustainable food systems, 2023
Mediterranean olive growing characterizes, identifies, and can sustain the socioeconomic viability of rural areas, not only through the production of primary products but also through the management of renewable natural resources, and the conservation of landscape and biodiversity. However, high levels of mechanization, monocultures, intensive farming techniques, and the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are threatening the environment and a ecting rural communities in turn. In the last years, the agroecological discourse emerged as a transdisciplinary science merging agronomy, ecology, and socioeconomic sciences with the purpose of responding to socioeconomic and environmental concerns, responding to the globalized industrial food processing and intensive agriculture. In this context, the research project Sustainolive, guided by an international consortium of stakeholders from academia and the productive sector, has the aim of promoting sustainability in the olive oil sector through the implementation and promotion of innovative and technological solutions based on agroecological concepts. Through an innovative, transdisciplinary, and multi-actor approach, Sustainolive combines di erent types of knowledge (e.g., scientific, empirical, and traditional), disciplines (ranging from engineering to the humanities), and methodological approaches (e.g., Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, Social Agrarian Metabolism and multicriterial analysis tools) to provide practical solutions that address the complexity of the olive sector. The results from the application of this methodology are expected to highlight which agroecological practices are more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable and uncover how Mediterranean societies use agrarian biophysical resources.
Organic olive farming in Andalusia, Spain. A review
Agronomy for Sustainable Development
Olive is a key crop in the Mediterranean basin, socially, economically, and environmentally, being a major source of rural employment. Organic products such as olive oil have attracted many types of consumers in recent years. In this context, the Mediterranean basin represents 5 Mha of the 10 Mha of olive farming worldwide, with Spain being the leading producer. Also, during the recent decades, olive farmers met the challenges of sustainability by implementing principles of agroecological production. Therefore, the focal point is no longer exclusively on yields but also on the quality, health, and environmental aspects of products and systems. In this work, we review and analyse the global situation of organic farming, focusing on the development, current status, perspectives, and opportunities of organic olive farming in Andalusia (S Spain). In addition, we assess the environmental benefits and consequences of the shift from conventional to organic management of olive orchards, focusing on the improvement of soil quality and biodiversity. Also, the general factors affecting the decision making for acquiring organic olive oil are discussed. Our main findings show the following: (1) It is necessary to encourage educational and research programmes to promote the demand for these products, positively affecting consumer health, protecting the environment, and improving rural economies. (2) The future of organic agriculture will depend on its economic viability and on the determination shown by governments to protect these practices. (3) Further support for funding research is needed to continue studying the effect of olive cultivation on soil biological quality, changes in soil properties, and biodiversity. More importantly, these beneficial extra outputs produced for society must be interiorised in economic value to compensate organic oil producers. (4) Finally, a clear understanding of attitudes and preferences, as well as the motivations of consumer when making the choice for organic olive products, is essential in responding to this specific demand. However, as stated above, major institutional and educational actions are also needed in order to boost sustainable organic olive farming and thus the preference for organic olive oil.
Journal of Environmental Management, 2008
From 2003 to 2006, a consortium of six European partners analysed the future of olive production systems on sloping land in the Mediterranean basin. Olive production on such land dates back to pre-Roman times, but the production systems (known by the acronym SMOPS, for ''Sloping and Mountainous Olive Production Systems''), are under threat. Many are unsustainable environmentally (erosion hazard), socially (exodus of young people) or economically (high labour costs).
Comparison of European Olive Production Systems
2016
(1) Background: Spain, Italy, and Greece are the world's top olive oil producers. In recent decades, these countries have gradually diversified their farming system in the olive groves. The element of innovation with respect to the state of the art is that this paper aims to compare the environmental performance of different farming systems in a European context by performing a simplified Life Cycle Assessment; (2) Methods: Environmental performance was calculated according to the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment and the "Guidance for the implementation of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)". Average data were considered in order to describe a system with a great degree of complexity and high spatial heterogeneity; (3) Results: The study highlights the difficulty of identifying the farming method that presents the best environmental performance in each of the impact categories considered. In Greece, the lowest use of diesel, electricity, and water brings about advantages for many impact categories, albeit with low yields. While the highest olive yield obtained in Italy has positive consequences in terms of global warming, the highest use of fertilisers, in many cases, entails higher environmental impacts. On the other hand, in Spain the highest use of organo-phosphorous pesticides entails the highest impacts of eco-toxicity; (4) Conclusion: the reduction of the use of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as water conservation, are important issues which require the optimization of timing and techniques in order to achieve environmental advantages.
International Journal of Sustainable Development
Dependence of conventional agricultural systems on chemical fertilizers and pesticides makes agricultural systems less stable and important drift polluters influencing to the regional and global sustainability. This problem made human being think about the alternative systems: agricultural systems that mimic natural systems and are friendly to the environment; those have higher economical efficiency concerning production level and costs. The objective of the present study was sustainability assessment and comparison of organic and conventional system with special focus environmental and economical performance. The case study consisted of two organic and conventional olive producing farms in the South of Italy. The method used for sustainability assessment was Environmental Accounting Information System (EAIS) that integrates together environmental (soil organic matter, soil erosion, genetic and landscape biodiversity, EPRIP, etc) and economical indicators (gross margin). Data used f...
2018
By adopting a food system approach, this study aims at examining the contribution of olive oil producing small farms (OSFs) to regional food systems, through the identification of the value chains in which OSFs are integrated, and the diversity of power structures across these chains. Drawing on data from the on-going EU H2020 project ‘SALSA’, a comparative study of OSFs in the Mediterranean regions of Castellón (Spain), Lucca (Italy), Ileia (Greece) and Central Alentejo (Portugal) has been carried out. The four regions are highly differentiated in terms of olive faming systems, quality of the olive oil, relative importance of OSFs and small food businesses (SFBs), scale of operations, as well as interlinkages between food systems actors. Varying degrees of concentration rates were identified, as well as different modes of articulation of the local produce with national and international agri-industrial food systems. Olive oil systems in the four regions are mainly export oriented, ...
Long-term feasibility of Mediterranean olive production systems
Acta Horticulturae, 2018
Of Mediterranean countries, Italy represents the second largest producer of olive oil, with about 14% of total world production, and represents the largest consumer worldwide, with 20.8% of total world consumption. Olive cultivation is mostly confined to southern regions, which overall account for about 80% of national olive oil production. In Calabria, olive growing plays a significant economic role, particularly in rural contexts, although olive growers have to face different problems such as high production costs, low productivity and low levels of mechanization of agricultural practices. However, many olive farms produce high-quality olive oil, thanks to both more efficient farming management and the adoption of product and process innovations. This paper aims to assess the long-term feasibility of different olive-growing systems in the Calabrian region (southern Italy) by means of joint use of a life cycle costing (LCC) approach and dynamic evaluation methods. The economic analysis allowed us to recognize the main hotspots within the product life of each system analyzed, useful to identify potential enhancements to the production process and to give rise to greater levels of profitability. Our results highlighted a suitable level of economic viability for almost all systems investigated, in particular when public subsidies from the European Union were considered. Our research could be useful to suggest the adoption of possible improvement strategies for corporate decision-making processes, to achieve appropriate economic sustainability performance.
Analysis and trends for Life Cycle Assessment of olive oil production
Sustainable Production and Consumption, 2019
For over 10 years, the olive oil sector has been largely studied through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Thus, a review of the numerous results and the different evaluated scenarios is relevant for future LCA studies on this important agro-economic sector of the Mediterranean region. The herein present work, based on scientific and technical literature aims to compare system boundaries, functional units, life cycle inventories, allocation, impact assessments, and interpretations from the currently existing LCAs of olive oil. Furthermore, an analysis of the assessment of biogenic carbon has been carried out among the reviewed papers. As a result, 23 relevant LCA studies on olive oil production or olives cultivation (for olive oil production) were identified. Analysis of the literature converged on an unequivocal environmental hotspot, the agricultural phase; which represents the most impactful phase of the olive oil life cycle, due in particular to fertilisation, pesticides treatment, a...
REGION, 2018
Neves, B., & Pires, I. (2018). The Mediterranean Diet and the Increasing Demand of the Olive Oil Sector: Shifts and Environmental Consequences. REGION, 5(1), 101-112. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.18335/region.v5i1.219 Mediterranean countries play a crucial role as olive oil producers and consumers compared to other world regions. In particular, the Northern Mediterranean countries, where Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal alone represent 68% of the world's olive oil production and 43% of world consumption. Nevertheless, aspects such as communication with emphasis on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet-which is a distinctive characteristic of the Mediterranean culture and identity and where olive oil plays an important role-the Slow Food Movement, the International Olive Council campaigns, and the successive Common Agricultural Policies, have triggered production, trade and consumption around the world. Such increases and stimuli brought and are still bringing changes to the olive oil sector such as a shifting tendency in production modes as well as modernization of the sector and new plantations, in response to consumers' increasing demand. But these shifts are creating a paradoxical situation in the sense that the promotion of a healthier diet is having a perverse environmental effect as the production of olive oil is shifting to more intensive production systems and monoculture plantations which are changing landscapes and are referred to as environmentally harmful to the ecosystems. These issues are here debated and illustrated with case study examples, referring to the Mediterranean countries, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula.