GM Crops muddying field of canola production by Dan Lazin
Calgary Herald, March 20, 2003

Seed has been altered for pharmaceutical, industrial purposes.

The new diversity of canola is reflected in the fact Tony Marshall, who makes one of the most distinctive canola oils in North America, can’t grow the crop anymore.

Highwood Crossing, the Aldersyde farm owned by Marshall and his wife Penny, makes the continent’s only cold-pressed canola oil, a product Tony Marshall says is much closer to an extra-virgin olive oil that a jug of Crisco. You’ll drop just shy of $200 for 20 Litres.

“We’re selling into the really high-end restaurants, places that have $35 and $40 entrees…It’s fresh, it’s alive, it has flavour and color, and those are all things you don’t associate with canola oil. The whole idea of getting something that was in the seed on Monday and in the chef’s hands on Friday – that blows buyers away.”

The Marshalls’ oil, meant more for use on salads or in soups that for deep frying frying spring rolls, is pressed only once at low temperature, instead of the two or three hot presses a commercial oil sees. The cold-press process means less yield from the seed, but a completely different quality of oil. Even refrigerated, it will only last a year.

But the certified organic canola from Which Highwood Crossing extracts the oil can’t be grown in crop-crowded Aldersyde for fear of cross-contamination with neighbouring fields, most of which now carry a genetically modified version of the plant.

“As a result, we have to buy it from other certified organic farmers who, either because of the size of their farms or their geographical location, can guarantee that they’re free from contamination.”

It’s been five years since he grew his own canola. His last shipment came from a farmer up in the Peace Country.

“About 80 per cent of the canola produced in Alberta is herbicide-tolerant canola. Most of that is genetically modified, “ Alberta Agriculture’s Keith Topinka reports.

Better yields, returns from GM Crops
The genetically modified crop gives farmers better returns on their land. And hybrid canola, a cross between two parental lines, whether GM or not, results In yields increased by 25 or 30 per cent, explains Phil Thomas, a southern Alberta oilseed crop-production consultant.

“We’re going to see an awful lot more hybrids grown,” he predicts. About a fifth of the provinces current canola is hybrid. Thomas foresees that figure rising to 50 per cent.
That all makes for a dizzying variety of canola crops, which troubles not only users or organic plants, like Highwood Crossing – organic canola accounts for only about one per cent of the provincial yield – but also new forays into specialty canolas.

Thomas describes one that allows for a normal consistency margarine made without hydrogenation. No introduction of hydrogen means no creation of unhealthy trans-fatty acids.

Growers of such crops, says Topinka, “want to make sure they remain separate from other canola, otherwise the extra value in their product is lost.”
Some studies suggest a couple hundred meters’ separation between fields is sufficient to avoid cross contamination. Others say three kilometers is safe.

At least for the near future, farmers wont have to worry about contamination from canola modified for pharmaceutical use. In laboratories, canola has been altered for medicinal and industrial use, but growers have vowed not to introduce such potentially dangerous contamination, Topinka says.

“There is a lot of caution on the part on industry and of the government, because of course you wouldn’t want to have a pharmaceutical in the product if you are gong to put it on your salad.”

Even regular canola has alternative uses in its future.

A University of Alberta researcher has turned canola into a biodegradable plastic. As well, the industry is lobbying Ottawa to make a canola additive mandatory in diesel. The sulphur pollutants in diesel can be reduced by between 60 and 90 percent, but the more sulphur that is removed, the drier the fuel becomes, wearing out the engine. That effect can be counteracted by the canola additive into diesel fuel to increase the longevity of engines by up to 40 per cent, Thomas says.

If legislated, the additive would mean additional canola sales of about 250,000 tones, compared to seven million tones normally produced by the West. The increase would be worth about $9million at current prices.

First, though, the industry must recover from last summer’s drought, which halves the yield in the Prairies. A recent canola-industry conference in Ottawa projected six million tones of crop from the West this year – one million tones short – worth a total of about $2.2 billion at current prices.

Alberta’s share is just under 30 per cent. Those figures compare favorably with the $529 million in sales that provincial farmer posted in 2000.

Once the industry is back on top of demand, it can try moving into an un-likely foreign market – Iran.

“They’re very short on oilseeds and they’re an importing country. They were looking at a variety of different vegetable oils and decided that canola best fit their society,” Thomas explains.

Canada’s contribution might be about a half-million tones, almost $200 million. The U.S share would be nil.

“There’s a political issue there,” Thomas says simply.