It was due to an extremely bad olive harvest in Spain. Interestingly, prices shot up in Spain well before they did here, so I had plenty of time to stock up at $11 a gallon.
This year's harvest was very good. Hold off on your purchases; the price should plummet (it's already started to).
Incidentally, nearly all imported olive oil in the US (and the world) comes from Spain, even if it has some italian crap on the label. Italians buy Spanish olive oil in bulk, export and market it, and collect all the profits. Notice how it usually says "packed in Italy". In fact, Italy doesn't produce enough olive oil for domestic consumption.
-- Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034 Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 758 8962 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565 Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique