In the 1990s, farmers are planting about 10.5 million acres of canola annually. Nearly 5.5 million of that is grown in Saskatchewan. Canola is Saskatchewan's second most important crop, after wheat. Bright yellow fields of blossoming canola are a familiar sight in summer. Canola was developed from rapeseed through plant breeding and research.
Canola oil has a complement of fatty acids that make it one of the healthiest edible oils.
In contrast, rapeseed oil was not suitable for human consumption. Canola meal is a nutritious livestock feed, whereas rapeseed meal contained glucosinolates that inhibited livestock growth. The knowledge and ingenuity of science has transformed rapeseed into canola. Such miracles have come about only after years of hard work, research, and countless field tests of new canola varieties. The History of Canola Farmers of the 1940s discovered that rapeseed grew well on the Prairies, and was well-suited to the climate of the parkland region.