Seeds of discontent

energy

Seeds of discontentBritain is losing its green fields, as the grass that once fattened cattle is replaced by oilseed rape. The bright yellow tide has upset lovers of traditional country views. But what about the effects we can't see? What is this chemical-hungry crop doing to the environment - and our health? Joanna Blythman investigates Thursday April 19, 2007The Guardian
A few days ago I travelled by train from Tours, in the Loire valley of central France, to London. I had imagined that this would be an interesting journey, if not spectacularly scenic, since this landscape is infamously flat. But I still wasn't prepared for the overbearing presence of oilseed rape. Church steeples, villages, parishes, whole départements flashed by, all peeping out from a vibrant golden-yellow blur of oilseed rape prairies.

On the second leg of my south-north train journey, another 400 miles or thereabouts from London to Edinburgh, once again there was no missing the proliferation of Day-Glo yellow plantations. Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumbria and the Scottish borders whizzed by, revealing vast swathes of land, all carpeted by bobbing yellow flowerheads of rape.
In the 1970s, oilseed rape was barely known in Britain. Many people were suspicious of this alien seed which announces itself with its all-pervasive perfume, reminiscent of honey to some, cloyingly sweet and as sickly as regurgitated baby milk to others. Now it is our third largest arable crop. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that in the past year alone production has gone up by an impressive 17%. Next year, it is tipped to top 2m tonnes. In terms of acreage, oilseed rape now accounts for 11% of the crops cultivated in the UK.
The economics of rapeseed cultivation have never looked more attractive to farmers because there is no problem finding a buyer. These days it is not just the old markets - cheap cooking oil, margarine, cattle feed, candles, soaps, plastics, polymers and lubricants. Oilseed rape has hit the big time as a biofuel. Currently, most of the UK's production is snapped up by Germany for bio-diesel.
And the latest silky-smooth ambassador for the crop is "extra virgin rapeseed oil", currently being touted as Britain's answer to extra virgin olive oil. For a relatively modest expenditure (compared with the serious investment needed to go into biofuels), growers from Suffolk up to Yorkshire and the Scottish Borders are installing screw presses on their farms and cold-pressing the seed. Northumbrian cereal grower Colin McGregor, who produces golden extra virgin rapeseed oil under the Olifeira brand, sells it at £6 for a 500ml bottle - the same sort of price tag you might expect on a classy bottle of Tuscan extra virgin olive oil. "That retail price is adding around 2,000% to the commodity value of my crop," he says. By any measure, an eye-popping profit hike.
On paper, British extra virgin rapeseed oil has a lot going for it. It fits in with the zeitgeist of home-grown local food and fewer food miles. A stroke of luck for farmers who cultivate it is that what was once regarded as a bulk commodity destined for refining, bleaching and deodorising into anonymous cooking oil and margarine appears to have a healthy nutritional profile, containing more vitamin E and fewer saturated fats than its traditional extra virgin olive oil competition. The marketing pitch coming from its promoters is ambitious. "The future is golden," says Cambridgeshire producer Munns on its website. "The popularity of cold-pressed rapeseed oil is set to soar as more people come to recognise the health benefits and quality when compared with olive oil. We believe that it will quickly become a favourite with discerning chefs, as it establishes itself as the really healthy local option." Another oilseed rape oil producer, Hillfarm Oil, boasts the motto: "Challenging the olive."
But will it? Chef and cookbook writer Mark Hix advocates it as "a really good alternative to using olive or corn oil", but not all food lovers will agree. This lustrous amber oil looks lovely and is commended for its "subtle", more neutral flavour. But anyone accustomed to extra virgin olive or nut oils may be distinctly underwhelmed. In my opinion, it has a dry, tinny, bitter aftertaste.
And whether we intend to slosh it on our salads, wash in it, or drive with it, all those canary yellow fields producing oilseed rape may set alarm bells ringing because of the way this crop is grown. Unlike artisan olive or nut oils, which have a time-honoured place in world agriculture, oilseed rape is a newcomer to our tables. It has been cultivated for thousands of years, but as a lamp oil. It took the highest level of plant breeding after the second world war to make what was a toxic substance fit for human consumption. Greedy for nutrients and notoriously dependent on nitrogen-rich fertilisers, oilseed rape is among the worst arable crops for leaching nitrates into waterways and polluting aquifers. It is one of the crops that led to the setting up of nitrate sensitive areas and nitrate vulnerable zones across the EU.
Oilseed rape is also plagued by a long list of pests and diseases - everything from cabbage stem flea beetle and peach potato aphid to black leg fungus and white stem rot - all of which require chemicals to keep them under control. A 2004 report from the Office of National Statistics states that oilseed rape crops receive on average three herbicides, two fungicides and two insecticides during the course of a growing season.
As a consequence of the intensive way in which they are grown on vast swathes of land, oilseed rape varieties are developing resistance to many of the pesticides routinely used. "For all these reasons, it is almost never grown or recommended as a crop on organic farms. It is a classic example of a crop designed for intensive agriculture," says Richard Sanders, policy and communications director at Elm Farm Research Centre, which develops and supports sustainable land use.
Some of the chemicals used in the growing of oilseed rape also cause concern. Nick Mole, UK and Europe coordinator for the Pesticides Action Network, points to the herbicide glufosinate ammonium and vinclozolin, "a fungicide that is also suspected to be an endocrine [hormone] disrupter".
"Neither of these chemicals are now commonly used as the farmer's first choice," insists Richard Elsdon, technical director of the industry body United Oilseeds.
And what of all those people who are adamant that exposure to oilseed rape triggers breathing difficulties, streaming eyes and hayfever symptoms? Every year the Department of Health receives complaints about eye and upper respiratory tract irritation in people who live near fields, possibly due to an allergy to pollen, direct irritation caused by the volatile organic compounds emitted by the plants, or airborne mould spores. Some doctors have suggested that oilseed rape may sensitise people to pollen or cross-react with grass pollen to cause problems. No other British crop exposes people to such an overpowering presence of pollen.
The oilseed rape industry hotly contests the claim that the crop could act in combination with grass pollen. According to United Oilseeds, the crop stops flowering before grass pollen is released.
The British Medical Journal has reported that there is no clear evidence that oilseed rape has adverse effects on health, although it has also recommended that further studies seem justified. The journal suggested that Britain has taken a dislike to oilseed rape because of its intense smell and flashy yellow flowers. Apparently, in other European countries with much greater acreage of oilseed rape, there is no such public concern.
Guy Gagen, chief arable adviser at the National Farmers' Union, believes that oilseed rape has no more malign an effect on its surrounding environment than other more quintessentially British crops such as wheat and barley. "It has suffered from the myth that it causes hay fever," he says. "But it flowers at the same time as many other trees, like plum and hawthorn, which could cause such symptoms. I firmly believe that it's too easy to blame oilseed rape, just because it's so bright yellow and obvious. People in Britain like to complain about the colour, but it is only temporary, not permanent. Negative attitudes to it are very subjective."
Maybe he is right. Perhaps when the current sea of yellow disappears in two months' time, Britain will put away its hankies and stop worrying about oilseed rape for another year. On the other hand, the more yellow our landscape becomes, the more our nagging concerns about this newcomer crop may grow to match its spread.
· Additional reporting by John Vidal.