Fields of Yellow Rapeseed

The sight of farmer’s fields full of beautiful yellow flowers has become more and more common in the UK over the past 20 years. Farmers grow crops that will yield the maximum profit from their land and thanks to the increasing demand for its oil, the rapeseed plant has become a cash crop.

The oil extracted from the Rapeseed plant has been used since the 19th century as an engine lubricant. For a long time it was not much good for any other uses due to its horrible bitter taste when consumed. Now, thanks to modern cultivation techniques allowing strains of rapeseed to be grown with a reduced  bitter taste and also due to geopolitical changes in western society, rapeseed oil has many new uses. The three primary uses are as a vegetable oil for human consumption,  as animal feed and as a source of fuel in the form of bio-diesel. Due to increasing demand – and dwindling supplies – of food for both humans and animals and the need for new sources of energy to replace falling reserves of fossil fuels, rapeseed oil will be in increasingly high demand for the foreseeable future.

Another benefit to all of us of rapeseed as a popular farmer’s crop is the much better scenic view it gives us compared to a field of cabbages, for example. The bright yellow flower can really brighten and enhance a countryside landscape, though personally I think this dominance of yellow can be overpowering to the view at times. Maybe farmers could find something else of financial benefit to grow with colours that compliment the rapeseed yellow? Red poppies maybe? Or how about some purple crocuses?