Yellow fields yield edible oil and clean fuel

Canola plants becoming important crop across region

If the countryside north of Spokane seems awash in yellow, credit healthy cooking and clean fuel.

John Stucke
Spokesman Review Staff writer

Canola is gradually becoming an important crop in Eastern Washington. In Spokane County, for example, farmers have about 8,000 acres of the pretty plant now in full bloom across the Mt. Spokane foothills.

Another 5,000 acres are planted with mustard, a close relative of canola, said Randy Primmer, director of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices in Spokane.

Canola is among the few crops that farmers can grow and turn a small profit. Processing plants in Alberta and outside Great Falls, Mont., buy the canola from regional farmers, crush it to extract edible oil used for cooking and then turn the leftover meal into cattle feed.

Yet, there’s more to canola than small profits collected from two states away.

Wheat farmers are planting canola as a viable rotation crop. Canola breaks the disease cycle from fields planted year after year with wheat.

And this year, for the first time, oilseed crops such as canola were covered by the 2002 Farm Bill — the federal government’s 10-year, $180 billion effort to ensure agriculture remains a viable American industry.

In short, farmers are guaranteed a basement price for their canola crops, much like the guarantee long given to growers of wheat, corn, soybeans, rice and cotton, said farmer Ron Jirava.

Also factoring into the canola equation is the continuing interest in building a biodiesel refinery in the region.

The Spokane County Conservation District wants to entice a private company to build a plant that would extract oil from plants like canola and mustard to make fuel.

The plan has moved beyond the conceptual phase to the point where at least two private companies have shown significant interest in producing biodiesel. At first the plant would likely refine used cooking oil from area restaurants into fuel to be burned in diesel engines.

Later, said the conservation district’s Jim Armstrong, the companies would look to build a crusher that could extract oil from canola and mustard.

If a crusher were built, canola would burst onto the agricultural scene in Spokane County and North Idaho, predicted Isaac Henry, the director of FSA’s offices in Kootenai and Benewah counties.

"We might have 300 to 400 acres in canola right now," Henry said of North Idaho, "but that would change in a hurry."

Armstrong said 100,000 acres of canola would be planted "overnight."

There’s plenty of financial hurdles to clear, however.

"Right now, canola is worth more in a bottle on grocery store shelves than it is in your truck’s tank," Jirava said. "As farmers, we want to do more than just break even. We want to make a dollar on this crop."

Canola is now grown on about 30,000 acres in Washington, including on Jirava’s farm outside Ritzville, where he serves as chairman of the state’s Canola Commission.

To help make biodiesel more attractive, the state Legislature passed a handful of tax exemptions designed to encourage production, handling and delivery of the plant-based fuels.

Also, the state’s fleet of diesel vehicles are supposed to run on biodiesel if economically feasible.

"Oilseed crops are doable here," Armstrong said. "It’s happening."

•Business writer John Stucke can be reached at (509) 459-5419 or [email protected]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=062003&ID=s1370112&cat=section.business