Shawn's Blog — Regulation

This is the third part of what was supposed to be a two part post.  I feel that this third section is important because it gets to the very core of what, in my mind, the O.O.C.C. should be about and if you are going to participate, what your business should be about. Not for one minute is anyone going to accuse me of being starry eyed or idealistic, but, to me, the whole point of this exercise is to produce good oil marketed in a bottle that tells the truth about the contents. It is a pretty straightforward concept...

This is the second part of what was supposed to be a two part post. As I suspected, it will be longer than just two posts in order to vent all my frustrations adequately. My previous post in this series described my involvement in a meeting of the Grades and Standards Committee of the Olive Oil Commission of California on February 27, 2019. The goal was to adopt Health and Safety Code language into the Grade and Labeling Standards for California Olive Oil, which was done. I would like to give a brief history of what has gone on in...

This is the first part of a two part post. In fact I will probably have to make it longer than just two posts to vent all my frustrations adequately. The intent of this first section is to report on my involvement in a meeting of the Grades and Standards Committee of the Olive Oil Commission of California on Wednesday, February 27, 2019. This was a meeting open to the public so don't expect anything too interesting or controversial. The second part of the post is to address some of the history behind the events which led up to the...

Last week, we were milling some Mission and Manzanillo fruit with Blood Oranges as we are now done making extra virgin olive oil. This process reminded me that last November, Curtis Cord wrote in Olive Oil Times what I thought was a very good piece about flavored oils. The gist of it was that flavored olive oil should not be labeled as extra virgin. I think he may have taken it a bit far saying it should not be labeled as olive oil at all as the percentage of the flavored oil that is flavoring falls in the low single...

I would like to explain a dramatic price increase that will occur over the next few months for many of the bottles we sell. This is not intended to be a partisan post nor a politicization of anything. I only hope to make clear something that I worry is not clear to many of our customers and to consumers in general. This is a post about tax policy and the effects of tariffs. The only reason I'm bringing it up is that the bottles we sell that are made in China just got hit with tariffs. Tariffs get charged to...