Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Slow Food

Abstract

Extra virgin olive oil is a commodity which enjoys particular prestige in the globalized economy. It is a "healthy" fat that is identified with localized production by artisans. Accordingly it reverses the erasure of the connection between human subjects that characterizes the fetishized commodity. Extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany is particularly prestigious and expensive, being associated with a region famed for its art, architecture, food, and landscape and widely popularized of late by British and American writers. The preference for artisanally produced commodities like extra virgin olive oil is linked to the growing "Slow Food" Movement which seeks to replace mass produced, artificial and sometimes tasteless fast foods by whole some foods produced in known places by identifiable people. Slow foods which can be consumed at leisure reflect the superior taste of purchasers. Despite Slow Food's championing of small producers, it is often the big firms rather than families of artisans that are able to access international markets.