In the San Luis Valley, interest in growing crops for synthetic fuels began in the 1950s and remains strong.  Costilla County has a successful biodiesel plant at Mesita using canola as does the mixing plant operated by Alta Fuels at Alamosa.

Canola first came into the public eye in the form of an oilseed called rape. Later in the 1950’s, other varieties were developed which produced healthy cooking oil and was simply called canola.
Today, several brands of spreadable butter feature canola as a softening agent. Canola can be found in many food combinations, as well.

An ancient food crop, consumed for thousands of years, Canola has been part of the development cycle of biofuels as an alternative to crude oil in the mechanized industry world.

Today, with continued variety improvements, canola oil has the distinction of being one of the lowest level saturated fat cooking oils.

Processed canola produces oil with both industrial and edible uses, as well as, a high-protein meal used in animal feed. The oil meets governmental standards for solid waste disposal and accidental spills are safe to the environment.

The story of canola starts with a pungent plant of the mustard family known as rape. The oil of the rape plant’s seeds has been used for cooking in India and China for centuries.

As people dined on it, another use came to light — insect control. While bugs killing garden plants isn’t news, the concept of some plants fighting back on behalf of others is. Since using dangerous chemicals isn’t the best thing to use on food plants, canola has been recognized as an alternative.

Plant-based canola oil has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for insect pest control. A batch of highly effective and inexpensive organic pesticide can be made at home with canola oil.

Find the recipe, applications and cautions online.
It’s important to note that canola oil and rapeseed oil are two different uses, though derived from the rape plant.

One of the biggest differences between the two oils is that rapeseed oil contains up to 40 percent erucic acid, while canola oil contains less than 2 percent as required by law.

In place of erucic acid, canola was selectively bred to contain about 60 percent oleic acid, the prized monounsaturated fatty acid of olive oil, which is about 70 percent oleic acid).

Canola contains low saturated fatty acid and a substantial amount of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Since a diet low in saturated fatty acids and high in monounsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids is believed by many researchers to be beneficial for cardiovascular health, promoters of canola oil often tout it as the “healthiest vegetable oil.”

Combine the oil’s favored fatty acid profile with a long shelf life and low cost, and you find a happy confluence of interests between mainstream science and the food manufacturing industry.  Canola is used in processed food products from mayonnaise to granola bars.

As edible canola grows in popularity, so does canola as a component in biofuels, making it a good cash crop for farmers.