A Historical and Social Insight of Olive Groves and Landscapes in Italy

The first evidences about the extraction of oil from olives date back to the sixth century BC in central regions of Italy. Over the centuries, olive oil became a rare and precious good, and its consumption was mainly destined for liturgical or sacral uses, during masses and sacramental celebrations, while at the end of the medieval period, different uses of olive oil began to assert. Only from the twelfth century, the olive groves assumed dignity and importance as an “income crop.” Around the nineteenth century, Italian olive growing took on the appearance of monoculture, and while many territories suffered the poverty caused by wars and the dominance of latifundium, olive oil production remained almost the only economic resource for these rural areas. In 1966, the European policies for the agricultural sector and the economic aids partially solved the crisis of the sector and pushed olive farmers to pay more attention to quality, singularity, and biodiversity issues, together with the need to modernize olive groves and make olive oil production more profitable and efficient will be the challenge of the coming years. In this context, olive growing represents one of the most important sources of income and employment for rural economy, although in many territories it is not expressing itself to full potential, generating; therefore, a mix of urgencies and issues to solve in order to make the most of this natural asset, also as expression of significant potentiality in terms of tourism and landscape. In the following paragraph, a brief history about the diffusion of the olive in Italy and its social implications for the national economy and territorial development is provided.