In 2017, over 100,000 acres of canola was grown in Montana, according to the United States Department of Agriculture …. [M]ost of us consume canola oil in some form every day.
“Yeah canola it’s in our everyday lives,” says Cargill Agronomist Keith Horton. “Right now our biggest customer is McDonald’s. So if you go to any McDonald’s in the United States all the fry oil is Cargill fry oil.
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Cargill has ten different research plots of canola growing across [Montana]. About 80 acres total …. [T]he company has realized Montana’s potential for the crop, and plans to have at least half a million acres for commercial use.
In late July, we visited one of those plots [where] researchers are able to cram in 300 different hybrids to study. Once researchers pick out the best canola hybrid, they will add an omega-3 trait for fish food, which in turn, will take the pressure off bait fish living in our oceans. Long story short …. Montana’s canola fields can help save our oceans.
“And to give you an example, we can replace 1.7 million pounds of the feeder fish with 160 acres of our canola,” says Horton. So while Cargill continues to quietly develop and research the foods we eat every day, new biotechnology is starting to make its way into Montana’s frontier.
Read full, original article: The New Frontier: From Golden Arches to Sea Floors
