Our head of food and farming, Phil Bicknell, wrote:
‘Dr Madsen Pirie is incorrect to point to subsidy as the reason British farmers grow over 600,000 hectares of oilseed rape in his article published in the Times yesterday (What’s lurid yellow and makes you sneeze? Ask the EU, 21.5.15).
‘Agricultural policy in England has long since moved on from distributing support payments based on the growing of a specific crop. The reality is that oilseed rape has earned its role as a valuable part of the UK arable sector. Whether it’s the one million tonnes of vegetable oil that originates from these ‘yellow fields’ or its virtues as a break crop, improving soil structure and breaking disease cycles in cereal farming rotations - it’s a valuable part of today’s farming industry.
‘As for this crop making people ‘sneeze and wheeze’, well, this is something the British Medical Research Council’s Institute of Environment and Health has examined. Studies agree allergy to rapeseed pollen is rare, even in areas of intense cultivation. Furthermore, people who are sensitive to oilseed rape tend to have other similar allergies. There is poor evidence that oilseed rape pollen acts as an active allergen in itself, except perhaps for occupational exposure.
‘Far from the suggestion of being ‘cabbagey’, cold-pressed rapeseed oil has firmly established itself as a premium product to rival the finest olive oils on supermarket shelves. And if you read those labels, you’ll see that rapeseed oil is a source of Omega oils and vitamin E, and has a lower saturated fat content than other cooking oils. Whether you look at it from the farmyard or the kitchen, the flashy yellow flowers of this versatile crop is just the beginning of its attractive qualities.’