Our Gocce di Natura ORTICE oil is part of the Slow Food Presidium: Slow Food has created a national Presidium that promotes the environmental, landscape, health and economic value of Italian extra-virgin olive oil

                                                                           Introduction

Italian olive growing–the immense heritage of olive trees, farmers and olive-pressers that
populate the peninsula right down to the southernmost islands–is experiencing a moment of
extreme difficulty. The crisis is linked to the process of industrialization of olive cultivation, with
the creation of new mechanized plants and increasingly technological processes, which have
made oils of quality no longer competitive. The age of olive trees–hundreds or even thousands
of years old, spread across the peninsula–further contribute to making the production of Italian
extra-virgin olive oil even more demanding and costly. Thus, the market, oriented toward the
lowest price, increasingly rewards low quality oils. For this reason Slow Food has created a
national Presidium that promotes the environmental, landscape, health and economic value of
Italian extra-virgin olive oil. It is a national project because producers of extra-virgin all over
Italy, in different areas of production, face the same critical situation.

                                                                             Presidium
The olive growers who join the national Presidium for Italian extra-virgin olive oil must have olive groves with cultivars that are indigenous to the area and managed without the use of synthetic fertilizers or herbicides. In the case of treatment, only products with low environmental impact and that guarantee no residual in the final product are allowed. In the case of slopes or difficult terrain, the work in the fields must follow good agronomic practices to avoid erosion and landslides. Furthermore, since pruning and harvesting the olives from centuries-old plants is more burdensome compared to younger plants, to avoid the abandonment of the oldest olive plants, joining the Presidium requires that at least 80% of the plants are at least 100 years old. Finally, producers must use a narrative label to sufficiently recount and promote their stories, territory and work.