The white coats
A handful of yellow-brown canola seeds represents a masterpiece in modern plant biotechnology. It has been so altered from its rapeseed ancestor that there is no comparison.
However, an equally important change has occurred in how this seed is prepared for use as vegetable oil for human consumption or meal for livestock feed. Canola today is our number one source of vegetable oil.
From Rapeseed to Canola, the Billion Dollar Success Story, published by the National Research Council in Saskatoon, details the obstacles that were overcome to make canola the winner it is. It’s a stirring tale and gives credit to all the players, including those in universities in the three prairie provinces, Canada Agriculture research, industry and, of course, NRC staffers.
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One of the more interesting chapters dealt with how Dr. Clare Youngs of the NRC worked in close co-operation with Jack Reynolds of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to develop a processing method for rapeseed oil that is now used in plants around the world. On one occasion a test sample moved from the NRC lab to the Pool plant at 3 a.m., indicating how involved they were with the puzzle before them.
The plant breeding miracles of Stefansson, Downey, White, Craig, Pawlowski and others are well known but the vital processing breakthroughs are often overlooked.
One seldom sees or hears from the white-coated laboratory people but they are key to the quality and palatability of what the family cook sets before us.
All hail to the lab crowd. Long may your beakers bubble.
