WTF did I just read??

[Magicpaintbrush]

uk.yahoo.com/news/millions-birds-sucked-trees-killed-vacuum-olive-harvests-192517480.html

I won't be buying olive oil from any of the countries mentioned in this article anymore. How fucking cruel.

OMG 😮 I never knew this happened.

Me neither - I was gobsmacked when I read it. What a senseless waste of life.

That is horrible. I don't see why they cant scare the birds out of the trees before they start hoovering up the olives.

They say they do it at night (when the birds are roosting!) because they get a better flavour from the olives - which to me is just ridiculous when it's at the expense of the lives of so many birds, absolutely crazy. It's so callous.

Oh my God, that is horrendous. Is there a way of checking which producers DON''T do this?

I don't know, the article just mentions that it is still happening in Portugal, Italy and Spain. Lots of other countries produce olive oil, Greece for example, so I am going to look into what's available from there instead.

Just checked my favourite olive oil and it doesn't say where it's from...

It's from Aldi. Does that mean it's made in the UK for Aldi?? Have I been cooking with ground up birds?

Well, in those countries people hunt and trap songbirds. My parents were offered blackbird pate in Italy. So I guess they're not fussed about small birds.

I wonder how you can find out which olive-oil producing countries don’t do this?

Grim. Go for cold pressed UK rapeseed oil instead, we switched a couple of years ago, there are some lovely ones out there.

I've stopped buying olive oil and converted to rape seed. Can't say I've noticed a difference other than financially.

In Palestine olives are usually picked by hand. There's a fairtrade brand, Zaytoun, that imports that oil. It's for sale at some ethical supermarkets where I live and really good.

I am sure it is the same with coffee beans.

Except it makes the coffee taste smoother. That's why they call it Mellow Birds.

What the.....?

Hi OP part of my family comes from one of the main olive oil producing areas in the world. I visit often. I have never seen, heard or read about the vacuum method. The usual method is for the tree branches to be shaken, then the olives fall down and are gathered on a net or cloth. The branches can be hit with canes to make them shake or a special machine is used to do the shaking.

I am also baffled by the claim that millions of birds roost or rest - not very clear from your link - on olive trees. I would love to see how the figures of millions of victims were calculated. Being familiar with both birds and olive trees I cannot get my head around the whole thing.