Crippling Frost, Climate Change Strip $1 Billion From Olive Oil Harvest


Italian olive oil farmers recently took to the streets demanding the country step in and help.

Italy could soon have to do the unthinkable: import olive oil to help absorb a steep decline in production, CNN reports.

According to Riccardo Valentini, director of the Impacts Division at the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change, global warming is wreaking havoc on Italian harvests after crippling frost cut this year’s olive oil production by almost 60 percent.

The industry will likely be hit with $1 billion in losses, and Italian farmers recently took to the streets demanding that the government step in and help.

The negative impacts will also significantly drive up the price of olive oil, so expect to pay more for the real thing.

Overall, Europe has been affected by radical hot and cold weather in recent years, and scientists are pointing to manmade climate change as the primary cause.

 

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