Rape of wrath to fuel UK autos

Daily Mail:

To some people, they are a visual delight - splashes of gold that brighten the muted palate of greens and browns, adding a dash of almost tropical exuberance to Britain's landscape.

To others, however, they are a visual abomination, their vivid tones an ugly aberration amid our otherwise green and pleasant land.

Love it or hate it, oilseed rape, whose flowers are now in full bloom and which has probably done more to change the appearance of our countryside in recent decades, is here to stay.

The reasons: it makes farmers a lot of money; it can feed animals and people and is even being touted as the answer to global warming.

All of which cuts little ice with those who believe the crop is not only an eyesore, but also sends vast quantities of pollen and noxious chemicals into the air, causing utter misery for Britain's ten million hay fever sufferers.

This is a war that will not be over for a long time. As recently as the 1970s, oilseed rape was as rare a crop in Britain as bananas.

Now it is our third-largest arable crop by area, accounting for 11 per cent of everything grown by farmers in the UK. The number of fields being sown is still increasing as more markets are being found.

Rape was initially grown as a bulk commodity for use in refining, bleaching and animal feed.

But after World War II, experts turned what was a toxic plant (causing breathing problems) into something fit for human consumption.

As a result, it found a market as a cheap and healthy cooking oil - a constituent of margarine and soap.

Scientists also discovered ways to use it as a base material for plastic production.

But it is the biofuel revolution which looks set to make rape Britain's number one cash crop.

Those golden fields are destined to be turned into a liquid fuel for cars.

Biofuels are all the rage because environmentalists claim they produce "zero emissions" - the carbon dioxide (CO2) they emit when burned is cancelled by the carbon dioxide already sucked out of the atmosphere by the plants they were produced from.

As such, they have been hailed as the fuel of the future, "carbon-neutral" and a vital weapon in the war on global warming.

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The photos of the fields are quite striking. It is an interesting argument on the carbon neutral aspects of the crop. I am not sure I buy it. You could say the same thing about oil since it is created from decayed vegetation from ancient times. You might argue that we are just returning the CO2 that was taken out of the atmosphere several thousand years ago.

You can be sure of one thing. If it produces energy, the liberals will hate it. Big rape oil will soon be under siege.