Zaytoun in The Irish Independent
Zaytoun on March 17th, 2009Oiling the cogs of hope for Palestinian farmers
Fairtrade is to market Zaytoun olive oil on behalf of growers
Tuesday March 10 2009
It’s the essential ingredient in the Mediterranean diet and marketed as life-enhancing nectar, but the business of olive oil production is fraught with environmental and political tensions.
In the EU, industrial scale olive oil production is being blamed by ecologists for disproportionate consumption of scarce water resources, soil erosion and even impending desertification in parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.
In Israel and Palestine, the annual olive harvest has become a flashpoint for conflict between Israeli settlers and Palestinian farmers and producers in the West Bank.
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