Featuring the oil of Joana & João Oliveira

Joana and Joáo Oliveira's Extra Virgin Olive Oil is certified organic by the European Union and by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture!

European Union requirements for organic food certification are quite strict. Only fertilizers that are 100% natural in origin, such as the compost of natural matter, may be used. (Commercially produced nitrogen fertilizer is strictly forbidden).

The new USA standards are equally stringent – though similar.

In addition, all chemical pesticides are banned. On the estates that produce The Organic Olive Oil Company oils, insect control is managed through the use of traps, and by nature: many of the trees are high and in windy places.

EU regulations also specify acceptable harvesting practices and stipulate that organic food can only be processed in certified sanitary facilities. In Portugal, farms and processing facilities are subject to inspection by the national agricultural ministries, working with the European Commission in Brussels.

As a final safeguard, The Organic Olive Oil subjects its products to review by an independent laboratory that specializes in vegetable oil analysis.

Few growers practice organic farming for an obvious economic reason: organic methods greatly reduce a crop's yield (and consequently the farmer's profit). In the case of olives, an organic farmer's harvest, on a per-tree basis, is typically just 1/8th that of the non-organic farmer.

Clearly, it is a special person who chooses to farm organically - people like Joana and Joao Oliveira, who see their oils as gifts from nature, helped a bit along the way by human hands.