Canadian canola goes to California

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is getting excited about using Canadian-developed canola as a multi-tasking crop on a farm in a drought-prone part of California.

At a return of a scant $300 an acre, canola is no competition for almond orchards worth 20 times that. But, planted where nothing else will grow anyway, canola may solve some environmental problems.

According to Associated Press, John Diener irrigates once-fallow fields with water that had been contaminated with excess selenium which kills waterfowl in nearby sanctuaries. The fields grow canola, which Diener crushes for biodiesel, feeding the meal to dairy cows in an experiment sponsored by the federal department of agriculture.

There is urgency in this because of an ongoing drought. Runoff from irrigation percolates through the ground, and collects excessive amount of selenium. Growing canola has the potential to clean up that contaminated water. Diener is a grower, not a dairy farmer, and the canola meal is being fed to an experimental herd. But the San Joaquin Valley is a huge dairying area and the agriculture department hopes to get other farmers to follow suit. BF