"Managing an olive grove as a nature reserve translates into severely limiting human intervention in the fields."
In 6 hectares of surface, located in Spezzano Albanese (CS), south of Monte Pollino, in Calabria, we take care of n. 800 olive trees doing only three interventions in the field:
- pruning of olive trees to manage the balance between vegetation and production ;
- cutting the herbs that grow spontaneously in the soil, from which we obtain a compost which, combined with the pruning waste, represents the organic vegetable substance that nourishes the soil itself;
- processing of the surface soil, once a year (between April and May), to bury the organic vegetable compost obtained previously , avoiding the risk of fires during the summer .
These operations, carried out under controlled organic farming , allow us to achieve the following environmental and social results:
35 tons of net CO2 absorbed per year*
Containment of the risk of landslides
Protection of 3 important animal species and various wild herbs
Use of 2 seasonal resources in rural areas
Landscape protection
3000 liters of natural extra virgin olive oil produced every year
*The European Union is working to create a standard for calculating the carbon absorbed in agriculture. While waiting to implement and adopt this model, in the meantime, the University of Perugia has conducted a study on olive growing. The Life Cycle Assessment methodology was used to quantify the environmental impacts during the entire life cycle, starting from the cultivation of the olives up to the transformation and packaging processes. The innovative approach presented in this work focuses on the comparison between absorptions and emissions, in order to obtain the net carbon balance of the olive growing system. (Source: Extra virgin olive oil is a potentially zero-emission product , NATURAL THEATER of 01/05/2024 )
Our farm, in terms of number of olive trees, type of agriculture and production processes, reflects company C taken in the sample, with some differences in that we have a smaller number of olive trees per hectare and we do not carry out any filtering of the oil.
Despite, therefore, a better carbon footprint compared to company C, to estimate our net carbon balance we took as a reference the performances recorded by company C itself, which highlighted that for 1 liter of oil produced it is able to absorb 11.73 kg of CO2, net of those emitted to produce the same liter of oil. Producing on average 3000 L of organic extra virgin olive oil per year, we estimate that our company is able to absorb on average 35650 kg of CO2 per year (3000 x 11.73 kg/L) and that each olive tree contributes for a portion equal to approximately 44 kg (35650kgCO2 absorbed / 800 olive trees).
