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Training organisation Smith & Georg are running a series of Chemical Accreditation courses from May through November 2012. Completion of the course allows the purchase and use of Schedule 7 chemicals. Duration is one day for accreditation and half-day for re-accreditation, with receipt of the Chemical Accreditation Card within two weeks of completion. The course can also be completed online via the Home Study option. For a list of courses and to register, visit www.smithandgeorg.com.au, or call Smith & Georg on (08) 8389 1856.
The olive tree is a symbol of abundance, glory and peace. So it’s appropriate that students at Garden to Table Schools will soon be using a premium New Zealand olive oil to create nutritious vegetable dishes in their kitchen classrooms. The Garden to Table program is a curriculum-integrated initiative that helps children understand what ‘good’ food is and where it comes from. The Village Press olive oil company has come on board as a sponsor for the Garden to Table Trust and will be supplying each school with 20 litres of olive oil every year.
Following the success of the Olives New Zealand Conference 2012, the 2013 will once again be held at the Auckland Airport Sudima Hotel. The date will be Saturday, 16 March, followed by a National Field Day on the Sunday at Simunovich Olive Estate. The Executive has decided to stay with Auckland for Conference 2013 due to easy access for flights within New Zealand and from Australia, and good deals on flights from most centres. The location, etc will be reviewed again for 2014 based on attendee feedback.
NZ Plant and Food Research and Massey University have developed a spreadsheet model for determining olive maturity. The decision of when to harvest is particularly challenging at the best of times, let alone in a year when the weather has affected flowering, fruit set, susceptibility to anthracnose etc, so this is a great aid for growers. The spreadsheets were emailed out to all members but are also available on the Olives NZ website https://www.olivesnz.org.nz/members-news/grower-manual/maturity-indicator-model-when-to-harvest/
A new report on a huge potential to sell olive oil to China also comes with a warning – opportunists there are already cashing in by selling adulterated oil. According to The Olive Oil Market in China 2012 from the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX), “this malpractice risks tainting the Chinese consumer perception that olive oil is a high quality product.”
US Senator Charles E. Schumer has called on the US Department of Agriculture to reject plans to change the standards for olive oil in the United States, a move that could have devastating consequences for Sovena and its 200 employees in Rome (USA), he said. Schumer is urging government officials to disregard a “costly and ineffective” proposed marketing order that would change the standard definitions, testing methodology and labeling guidelines for domestically sold olive oils.
A province in southern Italy has dedicated a 1,400-year-old olive tree known as “The Queen” to US First Lady Michelle Obama because of her commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles. Lecce province in the farming region of Apulia said that the roughly 100 litres of extra-virgin olive oil made from the fruits of the giant tree would be sent to the White House every year starting this fall. The initiative is being supported by local farmers including the “Sant’Anna Cooperative,” which manages the 1,500 hectares where the tree is located.
There has been a record harvest of olives in Spain this winter with production totalling over 1.56 tons. But this bumper crop could be necessary to weather the storm after low rainfall and frost this winter has damaged predictions for the coming year.
On April 25, Israel ordered Palestinian farmers in Deir Istiya, a major West Bank olive producing village, to uproot 1,400 trees by the end of the month. By comparison, this order is 400 more trees than the total number uprooted in all of 2011.
The US organic market grew 9.5% last year, breaking the $30bn barrier for the first time, and continuing to outpace sales of non-organic food, according to a new report from the Organic Trade Association (OTA).