Economizing chemical compounds: The production of qualities in Turkish olive oil

Abstract

Producers in many sectors, including food, are seeking to convert chemical compounds into value. Turkey is in the midst of a ‘quality turn’ in its olive oil sector, as producers seek ways to capture value through what I describe here as processes of qualification. Based on fieldwork with olive oil producers and others in the sector in Turkey, I show how the qualities of ‘high-quality’ olive oil are made through labour, technique and technology, remaking the chemistry of the oil. The work of stabilizing and standardizing the experiences of taste and smell to align with international norms involves harvesters, producers, laboratories, international standards, terminologies, infrastructures, equipment, and consumers. Such oil is relatively unfamiliar in Turkey, however, necessitating the formation of a market for it through the economization of its qualities.

Keywords:

• economy of qualities
• qualification
• chemical ethnography
• the senses
• olive oil
• Turkey

Acknowledgements

Thank you first to the olive harvesters, oil millers, engineers, technicians and other labourers in the sector who agreed to help me understand their work, and tolerated me in their midst. Most would prefer to remain nameless, but special thanks to Celal, Gülsün, Avşar and Gamze Kahyaoğlu, who helped to get the project off the ground; to Aydın Şensal and Fatoş Uluöz Şensal, and Burcu Efe who were very generous with time and expertise; the Ayvalık Chamber of Commerce Olive Oil Analysis Laboratory staff; and Mustafa Alhat in Akhisar. I’m also grateful to Özlem Özgür, and Ergun and Aslı Özgür, who started me down the path of this research. For insightful comments and/or assistance along the way, I am grateful to Janelle Lamoreaux and the Arizona STS Group, Sébastien Roux, Murat Kaçıra, Zafer Yenal, Eric Plemons, Stefanie Graeter, Robin Reineke, Megan Carney, Hai Ren, Laura Goffman, Kimberly Hassel, Ben Fortna, Yaseen Noorani, Amanda Hilton, Lee Medovoi, Ståle Knudsen, Ziya Kaya, Skylar Benedict, Brittany Franck, Neşe Kaya Özkan, Hüseyin Özkan, Emrah Karakuş, Mine Eğbatan, Ibrahim Işık, and Rachel Rosenbaum. I also benefitted from the thoughtful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the editorial board of Economy and Society, for which I am grateful.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

This research was reviewed and approved by the University of Arizona Human Subjects Protection Program, protocol number 1906723324.

Notes

1 The shrinking of agricultural land in Turkey is driven by land commodification and reconfigured land use (Atasoy, 2017).

2 The stakes involved in the qualities of food and drink in Palestine can also be seen in debates about indigenous wine (Monterescu & Handel, 2019).

3 For an overview of the main types of fraud in olive oil, see Olive Oil Times, April 2021.

4 The Turkish term for oil known in English and other western European languages as ‘extra virgin’ makes no reference to ‘virginity’, but rather is known as ‘naturel sızma’, roughly ‘natural seeping/leaking/trickling’ in English, a reference to the fact that the olives are crushed and no solvents are involved in its production. I will continue to use the term extra virgin in this paper, though, as it is used in international science publications by Turkish researchers, and is also more familiar to most readers.

5 See Meneley (2008) for an account of the qualities of olive oil that emphasizes the relationship between the oil’s properties and the systems of signification with which they have tended to be described, what she calls oleo-signs and quali-signs.

6 These terms were formally ratified by the Council of Members of the IOC in 2018, as revisions and clarifications of earlier IOC documents, standards and practices. https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/6-DEC-MET-15-REV-10-ENG-1.pdf.

7 For chemical analyses of oil from Turkey (see Andjelkovic et al., 2009; Alkan et al., 2012; Dag et al., 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the American Research Institute in Turkey, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute and the School of Anthropology, both at the University of Arizona.

Notes on contributors

Brian Silverstein

Brian Silverstein is Associate Professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. His current work uses ethnographic methods to explore the labour of qualification and value-making, the economy of qualities, and socio-technical innovation in the Turkish olive oil industry.