You might not realize it, but canola oil is a key ingredient in many foods Canadians use every day – including margarine, salad dressings and breads. A truly Canadian crop, canola is also a great example of how biotechnology can improve crops and make farming more sustainable.
What is canola and how did it get its name?
Canola oil – one of the world’s healthiest cooking oils – and canola feed for livestock both come from the canola plant, which produces an oil-rich seed. The plant got its name in 1978, combining “Canada” and “ola,” meaning oil. Today, Canada is the biggest producer of canola in the world. In 2018 alone, Canadian farmers produced more than 20 million tonnes of canola, with over half coming from Saskatchewan alone[1].
How did plant science create canola?
Canola is the perfect example of how plant science innovations can benefit farmers and consumers alike and it’s a made-in-Canada crop. Canola was created through plant breeding in the 1970s and it belongs to the same botanical family as cauliflower and cabbage. In the 1990s, plant scientists created GMO (or biotech) canola varieties that are resistant to herbicides.
This was a huge step for farmers because weeds steal water and nutrients from crops and are hard to control in canola. The new crop varieties meant they could grow canola more easily, while at the same time reducing the carbon footprint on their farms due to more efficient weed control. With herbicide-resistant canola, farmers like the Sawyers – featured in our documentary series Real Farm Lives – can safely spray their fields with herbicides to control weeds without affecting the canola itself. As a result, farmers don’t have to worry about weeds significantly reducing yields and spreading throughout the field to continue to be problematic in future years. That’s why today, 95 per cent of the canola grown in Canada is herbicide-tolerant.
Did You Know?
Along with being edible, canola oil can be used in cosmetics, toothpaste, sunscreen and industrial lubricants.[11]
Why is canola farming important?
Canola is a critical crop for Canada – in fact, it contributes over $26 billion a year to Canada’s economy.[2] There are 43,000 farmers across Canada growing the crop and in 2018, they grew 23 million acres of canola.[3] Canola is responsible for employing 249,000 Canadians and the industry generates $11.2 billion in wages.[4]
Outside our borders, the world also depends on our canola. Over 90 per cent of the canola produced in Canada is exported[5], so ensuring Canadian crop yields remain healthy and viable is of global importance.
How does GMO canola help the environment?
GMO canola contributes to more sustainable farming. Biotech crops like herbicide-tolerant canola play a major role in helping farmers reduce their environmental footprint. Specifically, GMO canola helps Canadian farmers, like the Sawyers, employ conservation tillage.[6]
Conservation tillage means tilling the soil less, or not at all, which increases soil moisture and fertility, contributing to more sustainable long-term farming. Farmers used to have to till the soil to control weeds. With herbicide-tolerant GMO canola, though, they instead plant the seed directly into the ground, where the remnants of the previous year’s standing crop are still in place and adding nutrients to the soil. As the crop grows, the farmer can spray to control the weeds, without affecting the canola crop – a much more efficient way of farming.
Tilling a field disturbs the organic matter – the stuff that helps the soil hold water and nutrients – and leaves the field susceptible to erosion from wind and water. Remember hearing about the “Dirty Thirties”? Part of the reason the Great Depression got that name was from the dust blowing around on fields in the Prairies, where soil had eroded. So, by reducing or eliminating tilling, farmers can keep more organic matter in the soil and reduce soil erosion, which leads to better crops and more sustainable farming.[7]
Conservation tillage also means farmers spend less time driving on the field to till and control weeds, which can compact the soil. In turn, less time operating the tractor also dramatically reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Consider this: in just a year of growing canola, Canadian farmers saved a billion kilograms of carbon dioxide because they didn’t need to run their tractors as often – the equivalent of taking 500,000 cars off the road.[8]
“It’s a great system, that we can seed directly into the standing stubble,”[9] says Alberta farmer Matt Sawyer. “We’re rebuilding our organic matter from all those years when we were tilling the soil to control the weeds.”[10]
The Sawyers aren’t alone. Many Western Canadian farmers today are using conservation tillage for more sustainable farming, thanks to GMO crops, like canola.
[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181206/dq181206b-eng.htm
[2] https://www.canolacouncil.org/markets-stats/industry-overview/economic-impact-of-the-canola-industry/
[3] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181206/dq181206b-eng.htm
[4] https://www.canolacouncil.org/markets-stats/industry-overview/economic-impact-of-the-canola-industry/
[5] https://www.canolacouncil.org/markets-stats/markets/
[6] https://biotech.canolacouncil.org/
[7] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181206/dq181206b-eng.htm
[8] https://biotech.canolacouncil.org/
[9] Matt Sawyer, Real Farm Lives 1, Episode 1
[10] Matt Sawyer, Real Farm Lives 1, Episode 1
[11] https://croplife.ca/facts-figures/canola-in-canada/