



I. Big Corn Makes Friends




pumping fuel




II. Drought, Spending Cuts Threaten Corn Special Interests





[Image Source: AP]



III. Big Corn Farmers Argue Higher Prices are Good for Everyone



corn profits




Comments     Threshold


RE: Bad idea
By Basilisk on 10/12/2012 9:57:02 PM , Rating: 4
True. Which is another comment on the insight/education of North Americans as Rape is a huge crop internationally and the oil is marketed under that name [rape seed oil] elsewhere and has been used for hundreds of years.

"Canola" was derived from "Canadian Oil" by the Canadian seed oil industry, and as far as I know was used from the start in NA [c. 1974?]. It wasn't a permissible product in the US until plant geneticists had bred a variety that reduced specific plant-acids that are associated with health problems when exposed to high cooking temperatures, and processors found refining techniques to replace the remaining problematic acid with safe oleic acid. [It's still used in the unrefined state in China where the high temperatures of wok cooking increase the risks of unhealthy chemicals being produced.. gotta love the food industry over there.]

It's a striking lovely crop while in flower, having lemony yellow blossoms that wave in the wind much as fields of wheat do. 'Made a lovely vista as I drove past large fields of it in Britain.

In 1981 rape seed oil achieved world notoriety when an epidemic of Toxic Oil Syndrome killed nearly 1800 in Spain -- the result of improperly refined [reports called it "illegally refined"!?] oil were widely sold. It took years to identify how it became that toxic as lab animals seemed immune to the specific risks that humans experienced. Today, there are numerous Scare posts about the evil Canola industry and its threat, based on the usual sorts of distortions and miss-informed "facts".

I've probably blown some fact, above... but I'd taken note of the crop after seeing it in so many fields abroad.

