Northwestern Jordan, near Irbid, is known for its rolling hills and, during the later months of the year, its abundant olive oil. People of the region proudly speak of trees that have been around since the Roman occupation. Even the French Development Agency has tried to establish a geographical indicator (GI) for olive oil from Irbid. Meanwhile, this region has not always been primarily famous for its olive oil. It is historically part of the Houran, a region spanning across Syria and Jordan and famous for its wheat production. Many farmers during my research stated that US and international wheat imported as food aid during the 1950s and 1960s contributed to the falling prices of wheat and the subsequent widespread planting of olives. During that time, prices for olive oil were favorable and many farmers bought seedlings from the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture. Through an analysis of interview and archival data from more than 15 months of ethnographic research, this project traces the transition from wheat to olives, placing the current debates around olive oil quality and best practices within the context of longer-term agricultural change. By examining both the shift from wheat to olives and the current olive industry’s capacity building efforts in the same region, this paper demonstrates that, despite these crops being produced overwhelmingly for local consumption, they are the products of global networks of development, trade, and geopolitics. Recent scholarship in geography has examined how quality and standards are produced within global production networks (GPN), but much of the work focuses on export-oriented crops. By putting GPN literature in conversation with work on the “global rural” and rural development, I call attention to how, even if olive producers are not producing for export, like in GPNs, their agricultural practices are often affected by broader capacity building networks embroiled in international networks of knowledge, value, and standards. Understanding how even non-exporting rural producers are engaged with socio-technical practices food standards and quality through global development networks is essential to understanding rural change and agrarian futures in Jordan.