The ‘father of canola’ transformed Canada’s once-humble crop
Known as the “father of canola,” plant scientist Keith Downey changed Canada’s agricultural history with his pioneering research at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). He converted rapeseed into canola, a nutritionally superior crop that now covers 20 million acres in Canada and contributes billions of dollars to the economy.
Born on Jan. 26, 1927, in Saskatoon, Downey studied at the University of Saskatchewan and Cornell University in New York. He spent 40 years at AAFC, changing a crop that was once grown to produce industrial lubricant to an edible, high-protein crop used worldwide to produce oil and livestock feed. Canola, a name created by combining Canada and oil, is the third-largest crop in Canada after wheat and barley. It’s the largest source of edible oil internationally.
Downey retired in 1993, but continued as a research scientist emeritus at AAFC and an adjunct professor at the U of S.
In the late 1990s, he led a project for Canadian schoolchildren that tested the effects of space travel on canola seeds that had flown aboard the Columbia space shuttle. Researchers are still working to understand the results, which included higher and quicker germination rates.
Downey is an officer of the Order of Canada (1976), a fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada (1976) and the Royal Society of Canada (1979), among other distinctions. In 1998, Downey Street, at Innovation Place in the U of S campus, was named after him. In 2014, at 87, he was nominated for the Oslo Business For Peace Award. As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the StarPhoenix and the Leader-Post are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.