A pilot program is encouraging Tennessee and Kentucky famers to sow canola as a second seasonal crop after soy or cotton.
Photographer: Ariel Cobbert/BloombergAmerican Farmers’ Next Hot Commodity Is Canola for Biofuels
The seed’s oil, more familiar in healthy cooking, has the potential to play a bigger role in low-emitting fuel markets. November’s election poses some risks.
Canola oil — invented in Canada 50 years ago as a healthier, shelf-stable cooking fat — may soon venture beyond the world’s kitchen cupboards to a spot in the airways.
A growing number of energy and agriculture firms in the US have been boosting spending in an effort to plant and crush more canola, an oilseed that could play a big role in the nascent renewable fuel markets — so long as a contentious election doesn’t derail President Joe Biden’s biofuel push before Americans can finally crack the crop.