31-10-2013
(photo alabamachanin.com)
At last, Extra Virginity has arrived in Italy and in Italian, published with the title Extraverginità. In this investigative book, American journalist Tom Mueller reports on the frauds and the scandals regarding olive oil, with a Tumblr and a special hashtag on twitter (#extraverginita). Originally published in English in 2011, following the uproar that was created by Mueller’s article on the Italian olive oil industry, titled "Slippery Business", and published on The New Yorker in 2007, Extra Virginity has already been translated into various languages, from Japanese to Portuguese. Everything began in 2004, when Swiss journalist and olive oil producer Andreas März, had 31 bottles labelled as “extra virgin olive oil” in a German supermarket, analysed. Here the results: only one of the samples was a true extra virgin olive oil, nine were only “virgin” and all the others (including some of the most popular brands in Italy) were non-edible “lampant” oils.
The cover of the book
Tom Mueller, from Us, American, he's a regular contributor of New Yorker and lives in the hills around Genoa
«Politics is not only conducted inside the places of power. All of us, as consumers, do politics when we choose what to put inside our shopping-basket». Writes Gabanelli. In this case, it’s a good idea to put the book.
Themes and characteristics linked to extra virgin olive oil, told by Luciana Squadrilli
by
a journalist born in Naples now living in Rome, she tries to make her three passions meet: eating, travelling and writing