Jane Reasland

Professor Hackworth

English 102

05/02/2016

Olive Oil: Mafia, Fraud, and Theft

Olive oil has been a longstanding tradition that holds an incredible value in all aspects of the Italian culture. It is used so commonly and on a daily basis that many individuals sincerely forget how greatly this liquid gold has affected and shaped their lifestyles. Olive oil has been present in various civilization lives since the B.C. era, as it has been referenced many times in the Bible, as is seen in this excerpt, "You shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of a perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil" Exodus 30:25 (Bible). It has carried on throughout the ages and even today it is still revered as being an important part of any Italian household. Since this is a product that has such an esteemed reputation and is valued so highly, nobody in their right mind would even contemplate to conjure up the idea to take olive oil and alter its validity to make a quick buck. However, that is not the case and the Italian mafia, especially those who are in control of the southern portion of Italy, took advantage of the olive oil industry and tarnished their hard work and their names by exporting and selling fake olive oil. The mafia had the audacity to take something so pure and historic and alter it to such an extent that most people did not even notice the difference, only because many consumers have never really been exposed to authentic olive oil. This situation has developed way further than it should have, in all honesty this should have been shut down a good while ago, however not enough media news coverage has gone to the public in order for them to be aware, and law enforcement has turned a blind eye because they feel threatened by the mafia's power. Olive oil runs in the veins of all Italians, it is a common thing all Italians share, and to think that fellow Italians who have become poisoned with the toxicity of greed and power have begun to alter the validity of it, amongst other products, to make more money strikes such a degree of shock straight to my core. As they continue to deprive consumers of the actual product they are paying for, they are not only stealing them of their money but of their health as well the most important group they have managed to insult are the individuals associated with religion, as olive oil has been integrated with religious practices and it has even been made a religious symbol over the centuries. The mafia has been corrupting the innocence of family run agricultural businesses and they have also managed to break the American law. It is an issue that not enough light has been shed on, and I intend to not only inform my readers about this developing issue, but to also suggest a solution involving the officials who are also taking a stand against the mafia.

As I began to dive into the information regarding the actual involvement of the mafia in the olive oil business, I immediately became concerned at how little information is really out there and easily accessible to the public. There are families who have run their own olive oil businesses for generations and they are being harassed and being forced to shut down because of the mafia's wishes.  It was not until I came across the 60 Minutes article that described in detail what they found when Bill Whitaker traveled to Sicily, Italy and he spoke with various officials and Italian agricultural individuals about how they were being affected by the whole situation. One of the officials that Whitaker spoke with was Sergio Tirro, and he gave insight as to how the mafia goes about exporting fake olive oil. 

"You in many cases are getting lower grade olive oil that has been blended with some good extra virgin olive oil ... you're sometimes getting deodorized oil," Mueller said. "They blend it with some oil that has some character to give it a little color, a little flavor ... and they sell that as extra virgin. It's illegal  --  it happens all the time...Taking a vial of colorless, odorless sunflower oil, he added a few drops of chlorophyll. "It becomes the color of olive oil," Tirro said. It's as simple as that" (Mueller). 

The excerpt above gives an in-depth and detailed analysis of the process in how the mafia goes about actually diluting authentic olive oil as well as making sunflower seem as though it is olive oil. The mafia is making an unbelievable amount of money off of their lies, as the Presna Latina news agency has found that "The hands of mafias on the whole of the country's food industry generated a turnover of  euro 15.4 billion in 2014" (Rodrigues). They are taking money from hard working, good people who love what they do, and they are simply selling and exporting sunflower oil tinted with chlorophyll and the consumers are none the wiser. In Sicily, one man has decided to take a stand against the mafia's nefarious acts and he was able to rally up some other individuals however, the situation did not end up going the way he had hoped. "Sicilian olive oil producer, Nicola Clemenza, is leading a 200-farmer uprising against mafia control in the region. "On the day I started the consortium, they burned my car, they burned down part of my home and I was inside with my wife and my daughter," Clemenza said." (Mueller). The mafia has no boundaries or rules when it comes to protecting what they deem to be theirs. They had no regards for the Clemenza's life, let alone his daughter's. Its an atrocity that needs to be stopped before they actually end up murdering an innocent person, if they have not already done so. 

The mafia is not just simply robbing consumers of their money and their livelihoods, but of all of their health as well, as I have previously stated at the beginning of the paper. Olive oil has been proven to have an endless amount of health benefits and it is just an overall nutritious and healthy, natural food product to put in your body. Various scientific studies have been done on how olive oil affects human bodies, and almost every single result that came from those studies indicated that pure and natural olive oil, like the kind that family run businesses produce, are extremely beneficial for our health. It is so essential and beneficial to our bodies that Antonella de Leonardis wrote an entire scientific novel based on it, and the essence of his book is in the title, "Virgin Olive Oil: Production, Composition, Uses and Benefits for Man." Leonardis explicitly states, "Accumulating evidence suggests that olive oil may have health benefits, such as reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease, prevention of several varieties of cancers and the  modification of immune and inflammatory responses" (Leonardis). Olive oil has been proven to prevent a variety of deadly diseases that a vast majority of people die from each year, taking this natural medicine away from the people is a crime. "Surveys show that the protection/prevention against illness, tackling obesity, and the nutritional quality of foods is of even higher priority than the improvement to the taste, colour, and texture of food ... " this statement proves that the public is indeed trying to better themselves, and they are choosing their health over the taste of their food and the mafia is taking advantage of that and selling consumers tinted sunflower oil (Leonardis). 

Leonardis goes onto to explain in a broader sense of how olive oil has become associated with individuals who live in in the Mediterranean area and how the health of those individuals has consistently been better compared to those who live in different areas of the world. "Over the years, the so-called Mediterranean diet has become widely associated with improved health and well-being as well as protection against cardiovascular diseases and colon, breast and skin cancers. The Mediterranean diet includes an important consumption of fruits and vegetables complemented with a high intake of olive oil and other olive products" (Leonardis). The mafia is depriving the American people of a popular food product that has scientifically been proven to aid in preventing cardiovascular diseases, which according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year -- that's 1 in every 4 deaths. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2009 were in men" (CDC). The mafia has not only managed to affect people who are actively attempting to pursue a healthier heart, but they have also have affected people who are genetically predisposed to being diagnosed with cancer. According to this reliable source, "Olive oil is used to prevent ... , breast cancer, colorectal cancer ... " and those cancers are two of the most prominent cancers that kill people in the United States (WebMD). From taking money and taking lives, they have also managed to taint the religious world as well by letting them use fake olive oil in their ceremonies. The mafia seems to be rather interested in meddling in thousands of people's lives, and they think they can do so without facing any consequences. 

Olive oil has been a major, key player in the religious world, as it has been recorded to be used as far back as the B.C. era. It has been used in the three largest religious branches in the world, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, as is stated rather poignantly by an olive oil history website:

 "Olive oil and the olive tree have a very strong religious symbolism. An incredible number of references to olive oil in the religious scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and in the sacred texts of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome are a proof of its immortality and spiritual significance. Olive oil is referred to more than 140 times in the Bible, and the olive tree is mentioned over one hundred times. In the Quran and the Ahadith (sayings and actions of the Prophet) and in the Hebrew Bible, there are numerous references to olive oil as well" (Why Olive Oil). 

Olive oil has been a connection between cultures and religious cohorts across time, and especially in today's world where terrorist attacks are taking place in the name of religion, there is no worse time to take a key religious symbol and reduce it to nothing more than a cheap lie. We as a human species need to come together and find a commonality between each other, because this has gone too far and now the mafia believes that they can alter one of the most historic religious symbols without offending millions of people who worship their own form of their Lord. 

Not only have they crossed the line multiple times from a moral standpoint, they have also crossed it from a legal standpoint. According to the Food and Drug Administration: 

"The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act -- which provides authority for FDA's consumer-protection work -- requires that labels on packaged food products in interstate commerce not be false or misleading in any way. To that end, as resources permit, FDA monitors food products to ensure that the labels are truthful and not misleading, explains Michael W. Roosevelt, acting director of compliance at FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). If a product is not labeled as required by law, the agency takes appropriate action" (FDA). 

The mafia is selling sunflower oil, which has no where near the same endless amount of heath benefits as does authentic olive oil, which is proven by an article in "Harper's Magazine" in the Gale database by stating: 

"Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that repeatedly heating vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower, and corn oil to frying temperature can lead to the formation of a highly toxic compound called 4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal, or HNE, that is associated with atherosclerosis, stroke, and Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and liver disease" (Harper's Magazine). 

Selling something that can cause a numerous amount of health related issues and claiming it to be olive oil is a crime in the eyes of the FDA. However, Guy Campanile states in a video segment done by CBS, "Olive oil fraud has gone on for the better part of four millennia," Campanile says. "The difference now is that the food supply chain is so vast, so global, and so lucrative that it's easy for the bad guys to either introduce adulterated olive oils or mix in lower quality olive oils with extra-virgin olive oil" (Silvio-Orlando).

 It is not that the FDA is not doing their best to catch the mafia and stop them in their tracks, it is just that it has become so difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is fake, it makes it difficult but not impossible as is shown by Nick Squires in his article in which he states: 

"Seven of Italy's best-known olive oil companies are being investigated for allegedly conning consumers by passing off inferior quality virgin olive oil as extra-virgin. The alleged fraud was first discovered by an Italian consumer magazine in May and then investigated by the authorities. They announced this week that of 20 brands tested in the laboratory by specialists from the Italian customs agency, nine were found to be lower quality oil" (Squires). 

Other tests by different laboratories have been performed as well, and the results were equally as appalling because 75-80% of olive oil that claims to be true extra virgin olive oil is actually a fraud. It was found that only 1 in 3 bottles sold in local grocery stores is actual extra virgin olive oil (Mueller). According to that specific information, it turns out that the FDA is making traction in the on going investigation and in the battle to end the mafia's greed, as well as cutting off their money supply by acquiring more evidence by learning more about this situation and utilizing their newfound evidence. 

The mafia's hands have not just been caught dipping in the olive oil business, they have also been caught in other agricultural businesses as well. A main business the mafia has attempted to take over is the wine business which is another one of Italy's main cultural identities. The mafia did their best to intimidate the Brunello di Montalcino owner, Gianfranco Soldera, by breaking into his cellar and opening the taps on huge barrels of wine, and in the end the loss amounted to 60,000 liters of prime Brunello wine lost to the dirt. The reason behind the near 10 million euro worth attack on Soldera's vineyard was that the mafia was angered by the fact that Soldera would not let the mafia alter the validity of his wine to make more money and thus be profiting off of his wine business. This attack angered Gianfranco, and rightfully so. The mafia is nothing but wealthy bullies, and this attack proved that (Pisa). The mafia has a tight, and what seems to be an unwavering hold, on the Italian government and economy, including all the local small businesses located within Italy. The mafia are text book definition control freaks who feel the need to greedily suck every cent out of every business that they can get their hands on because they will never be satisfied with what they have. They rule over the people they control by instilling fear and using threats, which thus influences the people to not fight back and submit to the will of the mafia. The innocent business owners not only need support from officials and law enforcement, they also need a solution to end this reign for good. 

Even with all of this seemingly non-negotiable evidence, there are individuals who do not believe that the mafia should suffer repercussions for their malicious acts. A group of olive oil farmers who are legitimately concerned with selling authentic olive oil are becoming increasingly troubled with how the officials who are contemplating the idea of lessening the punishment for the mafia, as is seen in this excerpt:

 "Mr. Fazzi, like producers elsewhere in Italy, is troubled by a draft legislative decree under review in Parliament -- with a decision expected on Tuesday -- that would tinker with the penalties for passing off counterfeit olive oil and its origin. If the decree passes, critics say, commercial fraud and counterfeiting would no longer be considered a criminal offense. Instead, it would be punished by a relatively light fine, effectively incentivizing the wrongdoing, the producers say" (Povoledo). 

This decree would basically be giving the mafia and all other companies who willingly alter the validity of their olive oil a free pass. It is not only Mr. Fazzi who fears this decree, many others in various positions fear it as well such as seen in this statement:

 "Mr. Grimelli, who opposes the measure before Parliament, said that by promoting sanctions over criminal investigations, the legislative decree minimizes ''the damage done to the olive oil industry,'' whose image is sullied when cases of fraud emerge. Unless prosecutors can investigate with judicial instruments, like warrants and wiretaps -- and not mere fines -- widespread counterfeiting and fraud will go unchecked, he said. Others agreed. If the decree passes, ''the whole notion of 'made in Italy' is at risk,'' said Tom Mueller, an American journalist based in Liguria who has written extensively about olive oil fraud" (Povoledo). 

Many argue that the decree is in fact enhancing the system in weeding out the culprits and making it more efficient because they state that they are merely branching off of a law that was put into place 3 years ago, as is witnessed in this excerpt, "As it is, Italy has a very good law, the Mongiello ''Save Oil'' law, passed three years ago, that vastly broadened the powers of investigators to root out olive oil fraud and prosecute wrongdoers with stiff penalties ...  ''The law is bearing fruit because the measures have been used ... to stem multimillion euro counterfeiting, said Colomba Mongiello, the lower house lawmaker who sponsored the 2013 law, referring to several recent investigations" (Povoledo). The woman who sponsored the "Save Oil" law, Colomba Mongiello, is stating that this new decree is only aiding in the fight against counterfeit olive oil, yet this new decree is "leapfroging the Mongiello law, substituting fines for criminal prosecution" (Povoledo). No mafia member is going to be intimated to stop their false olive oil sales by being threatened by fines, in fact it will only fuel their fire. 

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate the importance of olive oil in not only the lives of Italians, but in your lives as well. Next time you find yourself in the cooking oil aisle of your local grocery store and you happen to pause and browse the olive oil section, think about your purchase with clarity. For all you know, roughly 5,000 miles across an ocean, the mafia decided that they could sell you olive oil that could be nothing more than sunflower oil. You have a 1 in 3 chance to choose the real olive oil, you are rolling the dice to spend your hard-earned money on a lie or on the truth.  Most people dislike being told that what they are buying is a fake, and they are angered by the fact that strangers feel as though they have the power to decide what is going to be real and what is not. My solution is to first make the public aware of the fact this is indeed an on going issue, and secondly write a letter or draft an e-mail to Gian Carlo Caselli, who was a former anti-mafia prosecutor, and now he leads a Justice Ministry commission that is currently in the process of drafting a broad reform on agricultural and food related crimes, and I would further explain how I as an American who grew up and spent most of my childhood living in Italy, is also outraged at how the mafia is getting away with these crimes (Povoledo).  I am enraged as both a consumer, and also a person who has a real connection to olive oil. My childhood was spent learning and thriving in the Italian culture, and my landlords always made sure I was experiencing Italy in the purest form, and that included helping them press their own olive oil. I saw how hard it was to take so many olives and be rewarded with such little oil, but in the end the hard work is well worth the result. I would try to help Caselli in the fight against the mafia in any way that I could, and I would rally people all in the community to help as well, as they are being duped as well. In the end, it is an issue we must all be aware of, and even if people do not choose to help fight it, knowledge is power and if I can help even one person be more olive oil savvy then we are one step closer to ending the mafia's hold on consumers. 

Works Cited

"Compare Translations for Exodus 30:25." www.biblestudytools.com. Web. 2014. 

"FDA: Foods Must Contain What Label Says." www.fda.gov.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 11 July. 2014. 26 Feb. 2016.

"Findings." Harper's Magazine July 2005: 100. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

"Heart Disease Facts." www.cdc.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 10 Aug. 2015.

Leonardis, Antonella de. Virgin Olive Oil : Production, Composition, Uses And Benefits For Man. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2014. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

Mueller, Tom. "Mafia Control of Olive Oil the Topic of '60 Minutes' Report." www.oliveoiltimes.com. Web. 3 Jan. 2016. 5 Feb. 2016.

"Olive Oil in Religion." www.whyoliveoil.com. Web. 02 June. 2013.

"Olive Oil: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings." www.webmd.com. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Consumer Version. Web. 2016.

Orlando, Lisa. "Don't Fall Victim to Olive Oil Fraud." www.cbsnews.com. CBS Online News Video Segment. Web. 03 Jan. 2016.

Pisa, Nick. "Grapes of Wrath: Mafia Blamed for Pouring 80,000 Litres of Wine from One of Italy's Most Prestigious Vineyards Down the Drain." www.dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail Online. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.

Povoledo, Elisabetta. "Italy Growers Wary of Olive Oil Fraud as New Law Is Weighed." New York Times 28 Feb. 2016: A8(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 Apr. 2016.

Rodriguez, Cecilia. "Italy's Food Mafia Seeps Beyond Fake Olive Oil." www.forbes.com. Forbes Magazine. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. 12 Feb. 2016.

Squires, Nick. "Italian Olive Oil Scandal: Seven Top Brands 'Sold Fake Extra-Virgin." www.telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.

 
