Farmers hope new co-op and oil seed will improve profits

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Posted 10:41AM on Sunday, January 5, 2003

ALBANY - Stunning yellow flowers could be blooming across Georgia in a few years, thanks to an ambitious plan to introduce a new crop that could help Southern farmers squeeze more cash from existing commodities. The fresh crop is canola, a bean that produces a healthy cooking oil with half the saturated fat of other vegetable oils and meal that can be used for poultry and livestock feed. Georgia farmers led the nation in canola production in the mid 1990s, but the effort was stymied by disease, freezing weather and the lack of a mill to crush the beans. But with new varieties suitable for the Southeast and the planned construction of a $55 million crushing plant, Georgia could be on the verge of a canola revival. Farmer Morris King never lost confidence in canola and his 100 acres in northeast Georgia's Hart County may be the only commercial canola grown in the state this winter. He plans to join the co-op and believes the crushing mill could increase prices for both canola and soybeans. His canola plants are only a few inches tall now, but by spring they'll be waist high and topped with yellow blooms. ``They're such a vivid yellow they almost hurt your eyes,'' King said. University of Georgia agronomist Paul Raymer, who has spent about 12 years developing Southern canola, has already introduced a variety known as ``Flint'' that resists the disease that hurt the earlier effort. Other varieties are on the way. ``We know we can grow the crop,'' Raymer said. ``The biggest problem is that there's no local market for it. There's a huge world market.'' With support from the university and farm groups such as the Georgia Farm Bureau, growers are organizing a cooperative to promote vegetable-oil production. The Farmers Oilseed Cooperative Inc. plans to build a state-of-the-art plant in the southeast Georgia town of Claxton, better known as the ``Fruitcake Capital of the World.'' ``We're going to make it the oilseed capital of the world,'' said George Shumaker, a grain and oilseed economist with the university. ``Not only are we going to have improved varieties. There's also the distinct possibility, we're going to have peanuts and soybeans with unique traits.'' He said the plant will be able to process oils with special nutritional or pharmaceutical characteristics. ``That is a characteristic that the other large processing facilities don't have,'' Shumaker said. Besides crushing seeds such as canola, soybeans, peanuts and sunflowers, the cooperative will blend and bottle the oil and market it. Farmers say this will increase their profits by giving them control of their product from the field to the grocery store. Soon, the cooperative will begin selling stock. Stockholders must commit to supplying the plant with more-than 9 million bushels of grain a year, the amount grown on 235,000 acres. Co-op board member Billy Wayne Sellers, an Appling County farmer, said the mill will give growers the profits that usually go to middlemen. Farmers plant soybeans in the spring, but Georgia's acreage has dwindled from more than 2 million in the early 1980s to about 140,000 because of low prices and a shift to cotton. They have few options in the winter, growing about 200,000 acres of wheat, about 14,000 acres of Vidalia onions and a few thousand acres of vegetables. ``Compared to our total crop acres of about 3 million, that leaves 2.5 million acres for some alternative,'' Shumaker said. ``The land base is there, the varieties are there, but what is lacking is a facility to process the product.'' Demand for canola oil has been increasing because of its healthy properties. Canadian researchers developed it from rapeseed by isolating and breeding plants that were low in fatty acids. Most of North America's canola is grown in western Canada, where it is a $2 billion crop. North Dakota is the largest U.S. producer with a $151 million crop. Most of the northern varieties are genetically modified to resist common weed-killing chemicals. Raymer believes the European Union's opposition to modified crops should give Georgia-grown canola, which is not genetically modified, an ideal market niche. ``It's not a problem for American consumers, but Europe does not accept GM varieties,'' he said. ``We feel ... we could capitalize on that.'' Dave Wilkins, spokesman for the Canola Council of Canada, said Canada and the United States are negotiating with the Europeans on modified crops. ``It is not for us to say whether Georgia growers should or shouldn't grow canola,'' Wilkins said. ``However there are more markets for canola than we have crop. So the more canola, the more likely we all are of keeping and expanding canola markets.''