Spanish oil, by Jolie Shedd

Spain produces the most olive oil in the world. Olive oil is very important to Spain’s economy and has been hit with rising prices due to drought causing a decreased output of olives grown (see news article link below). This was something I did not know before coming to Spain and I would have guessed the answer was Italy. However, this makes sense to me now because the Spanish love their olive oil. I remember my surprise when I went to the grocery store and saw the huge jugs it’s sold in. My host mom puts olive oil on everything from rice to eggs, which was a foreign concept to me. If she doesn’t drizzle olive oil on top, then she is cooking it in olive oil. However, I think their use of olive oil is a statement to their generally healthy Mediterranean diet. Even though I perceive the Spanish use of olive oil on practically everything to be peculiar, it is completely normal to them. In Unit 2, we talked about how culture affects the mind. One of the things we learned about was that “membership in a culture is sharing with others of conceptions about what can be taken as ordinary”. This can be related to my confusion about the amount of olive oil I was consuming at the beginning of my stay abroad due to not belonging to Spanish culture. Cultural differences in what is a normal-sized container of olive oil are also evident because in Spanish culture they are huge, compared to the small-sized containers in the United States. I can say that being immersed in Spanish culture has changed my views on olive oil, which was a completely unexpected outcome. However, I am certain when I go home I will swap out my butter for it much more frequently.

https://www.euronews.com/business/2023/10/03/spain-hit-hard-by-rising-price-of-olive-oil-as-climate-change-takes-its-toll-on-production