Ag scientist gets peace award nod
Keith Downey was taken aback upon learning he had been nominated for the 2014 Oslo Business for Peace.
“I was surprised (with the nomination),” said the 87-year-old research scientist, who has served as senior research scientist at the Agriculture an AgiFood Canada Research Centre, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
The Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce nominated Downey for the Oslo Business for Peace, given to seven nominees for adding a better understanding of the relationship between ethical business practices and peace.
The award was part the Celebrate Success! Business Awards Program. The Celebrate Success! gala honours the exceptional businesses growing and operating in the Saskatoon region.
Downey has been breeding Brassica oilseed and mustard crops for more than 50 years and was instrumental in the development of canola. Downey was a main contributor in the development of Brassica oil and mustard crops that contain superior nutritional qualities, helping discover a way to block two nutritionally undesirable compounds in rapeseed and come up with canola.
Canola now is a $19 billion market in Canada and a $60 billion international market. It is Canada’s most valuable grain crop and canola oil is now the third most-used oil in the world, behind only palm and soy.
He has served as senior research scientist at the Agriculture and Agi-Food Canada Research Centre and as an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
“Peace is usually associated with an ample food supply,” Downey said. “I think that canola has contributed to that aspect.”
Yields have been climbing in every country and the oil is no longer just for industrial use, but is used as an edible oil.
“The development of canola hasn’t just had an impact on Canada,” Downey said. “Canada freely disseminated the techniques and the methodology to convert that crop to other countries.
“Germany has increased their acreage by a factor of 10 to 14 times over the last 15 or 20 years and it has moved into Britain, and China has expanded tremendously.”
“We bred better than we knew in that canola today is the healthiest oil on the market.”
The impact canola has had on western Canadian farmers is huge.
In 1971 the rapeseed industry was in crisis after a number of studies indicated the two nutritionally undesirable compounds (erucic acid and glucosinolates) may be harmful.
“We almost lost the industry,” Downey said.
They were able to develop a seed with low erucic acid and “we switched over the whole crop in two years.”
They later identified a variety that was low in glutacintilades.
Downey grew up in Saskatoon, spending many summers working on plots on the U of S campus under Bill White. He earned a BSA and MSc. at the U of S and PhD at Cornell University. In 1952 he was appointed head of alfalfa breeding at Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Station. In 1958 he transferred to the Saskatoon Research Station to direct the oilseed breeding program. He became the breeder or co-breeder of 13 rapeseed/canola varieties and five condiment mustard varieties.
Among his many accolades, Downey is a member of the Saskatchewan and Canadian Agriculture halls of fame and was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1976.