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Canola: Western Canada's Other Oil Boom


Since persuading his skeptical father to plant the newly designed seed in the early 1980s, his farm and others across the Prairies have seen canola reap the perfect alignment of higher yields and strong prices, driven by innovative science and rising demand.

A plant that didn’t even exist a few decades ago is now King Canola, a supercrop that generates a high-protein cattle meal and a vegetable oil that’s highly coveted for its health benefits. In 2010, the plant was the most valuable cash crop in Canada, with $5.6-billion in farm sales. It bypassed wheat – with $3.5-billion – which, although enjoying a price surge recently, has often languished from low prices and shifting markets.

Given all its economic spinoffs, such as transportation and processing, canola is a $15.4-billion industry in this country. According to the Canola Council of Canada, $14-billion of that activity is generated in the West.

“It’s the one crop that farmers are pretty sure they can make money on,” says Peter Phillips, a University of Saskatchewan economist who studies the impact of agricultural research. “It’s one of our visible and uniquely Canadian success stories.”

That story seems likely to continue, although a severe global downturn could cut into growth in U.S. and foreign markets – as could a narrowing in the pipeline of research and development money, much of which is spent in Canada.

To farmers like Mr. Dunnigan, canola oil's sharp rise over the past few decades represents nothing less than a revolution in the fields. In the Prairies, the crop is as much a part of the national identity as Sidney Crosby or maple syrup. And in many pockets of Canada's Big Middle, it has helped breathe new life into communities facing economic decline.

Profit-making from canola stems from of two landmark research breakthroughs. In the 1970s, scientists took a mundane plant called rapeseed – traditionally used as an industrial lubricant – and blocked out inedible acids to create an oilseed cultivar fit for human consumption. The seeds also contained very low levels of saturated fat.

The result was canola – short for “Canada oil, low acid.” That was the new seed that Brent Dunnigan brought home to his dad in 1981.

The second innovation took hold in the 1990s, with the emergence of a genetically modified seed tolerant to commonly used farm herbicides. That meant more flexibility and productivity for farmers, as they were moving away from summer fallow and toward little or no soil tillage. They could insert canola efficiently into crop rotations, combining it with wheat, barley and legume crops.

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