SEED SPLITTING. DOES ORGANIC CANOLA OIL EXIST?

When I first came to this country I have read a lot of articles on benefits of canola oil. And naturally I started using it for cooking. One day I went back to my childhood days in Poland and I was recalling a delicious taste of an oil used as a salad dressing, especially for sauerkraut salad. It was rapeseed oil. Several months ago I found the article on canola oil, and I learned that it was actually genetically modified version of rapeseed oil. The rapeseed oil I knew and canola one have nothing in common but “DNA”. I also learned that canola oil is not as good for human consumption as it was considered once. Few days ago on the shelves of the Whole Food I found canola oil which was Certified Organic. I was in disbelief because as far as I knew organic cannot be genetically modified. I was right. However, unfortunately for consumers, more and more Certified Organic foods are not that “kosher”. Read the below article on authenticity of organic canola oil.

Bruce Fife, N.D., in response to readers questioning his assertion that there is no truly organic canola oil on the market, despite the fact that labels on some canola oil products state the oil is organic, writes “The U.S. and Canada both prohibit certified organic foods from genetically engineered foods. I used to believe that because canola oil was created from the process of seed-splitting – the precursor to genetic engineering – it was considered to be genetically modified and therefore, could not be “certified organic.” I was wrong.

“Although seed-splitting alters genes in plants, it is considered a high-tech form of hybridization and such products can be labeled organic if grown and processed under organic specifications. Despite the fact that seed-spitting is a completely unnatural process that alters the genetic makeup of the plant, canola oil can be sold as being organic. However, the widespread use of genetically engineered Roundup Ready® rapeseed has led to the contamination of virtually all commercial sources of rapeseed (canola). Genetically modified crops release pollen into the air, as all crops do; this pollen cross-breeds with organic rapeseed. Virtually all organically grown rapeseed. Virtually all organically grown rapeseed contain some percentage of these genetically engineered plants.

“All canola oil on the market was developed by seed-splitting, which is really a form of genetic engineering, and essentially canola oil on the market contains some Roundup Ready® genetically engineered canola. So if it is labeled organic, it really isn’t.”

Well Being Journal

July/August 2013