Aníbal Fernandes | Diário do Alentejo
OLIVUM, the largest association of olive growers and mills in the country, has the Alentejo Olive Oil Sustainability Program underway. Started in May, the initiative now intends to reach the 1st cycle students of the municipality of Beja and show the whole chain, from the field to the packaging, and the sustainability practices used in its production.
“We started with the youngest students for logistical reasons and because they are the ones who, due to their age, show the most curiosity, but next year we want to reach other ages.” Who says so is Gonçalo Moreira, manager of the Alentejo Olive Oil Sustainability Program.
The choice of 1st cycle students was due to an easier contact with the schools and to the operationality of the visits, since each class has only one teacher.
OLIVUM, which represents about 85% of the olive grove area in Portugal, launched the Alentejo Olive Oil Sustainability Program in partnership with the University of Évora, with the aim of “responding to pressing challenges of the olive oil sector, through the implementation, enhancement and communication of best practices of sustainability (social, environmental and economic) in the production of olive oil in the Alentejo.
The Intermunicipal Community of Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL) has associated itself with this initiative “in its dissemination through the school groups in the municipality of Beja, hoping to obtain the best possible reception and participation from them.
Gonçalo Moreira intends that the visits, to take place during the next campaign, “allow the knowledge of the territory to be disseminated” and that young people get to know “how olive oil is produced, from harvesting to storage and packaging, as well as the sustainability practices used in its production.
The project leader recalls that this crop “has been with us for eight thousand years and is part of the Mediterranean diet,” being “one of the foods with the most positive impact on human health. Furthermore, in the document to which the “Diário do Alentejo” had access, the “important impact on the region’s economy” is highlighted.
The promoters argue that this “is a culture that has had a great evolution” and that “along with the installation of new and modern mills, has allowed for an increase in production and quality without changing the way the oil is extracted from the olives.
This with the incorporation of “more and more environmental, social, and economic sustainability practices” and that allowed the Alentejo to become the largest olive oil producing region in the country, reaching 95 percent of the national total.
“For all this, we want students to know how olive oil from the Alentejo is produced,” as opposed to “those who, without knowledge and in an uninformed way, pass on unfounded messages,” explains Gonçalo Moreira.
With the visits to the olive groves and mills they intend that “the students come into contact with the culture and the fruit, that they see the techniques used in the production of olives, and then visit the mill and follow the production of olive oil from the reception of the fruit to the final product. Throughout the visit the environmental sustainability practices implemented in the olive grove and the mill will be presented.
But Olivum doesn’t just want to explain. It also wants to talk to young people “about environmental issues and to know their vision and concern about this issue.” The outings will take place during the months of November and December, with visits to olive groves (with a brief explanation about culture, irrigation, plant nutrition, and biodiversity) and mills (with monitoring of the processes of receiving, washing, cleaning, and weighing the olives outside); the monitoring of oil extraction (olive paste mixers, centrifugation and decanting of the oil, warehouse and oil tanks, filling line, and packaging); and the laboratory and olive and oil quality control room.
At the end of each visit there will be a moment of interaction about olive oil, the different categories, and “the importance of environmental preservation,” where it is intended that “the students comment on what they saw, what they learned, and what they think about environmental protection. Ah! And it will end with a small snack.
December 14, 2022
