Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.09.2012, Blaðsíða 6

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2012
Iceland | Growth
This is pretty cool. Hopefully it works out. But why is it called
'rapeseed'? Seems like a pretty nasty name for such a nice seed.
Sunday morning, 11:00. Þorvald-
seyri farm. Autumn has arrived,
but this morning is sunny and
unseasonably mild. The waves
of a golden field of rapeseed
flowers undulate in the gentle
breeze almost as far as the eye
can see. Almost at the southern-
most point of mainland Iceland,
these fields lie in the shadow of
the tumbling, mountainous Nú-
pur ridge, and just a few short
kilometres from Eyjafjallajökull
and Hekla. On a clear day, you
can see the dramatic cliffs of the
Westman Islands from this spot.
Jón Bernódusson travels here most
weekends, setting off from Reykjavík
in the early morning to make the three-
hour drive to catch up with Ólafur Eg-
gertsson, whose family has farmed this
land for over a hundred years.
Jón takes the f lower of one of the
stems in his fingers and tears it from its
stalk. He opens it up to reveal a line of
tiny brownish pips—these are the seeds
that will be extracted and then crushed
to produce the rapeseed oil which Óla-
fur is bottling back at his farmhouse.
“These need another week or two,” Jón
says, scattering the seeds back over the
earth, casting a hand across the tract of
farmland where we stand. “The seeds
have to be black before you can harvest
them.”
Rapeseed revolution
Jón works for the Icelandic Maritime
Administration (IMA), which is leading
the development of rapeseed as a crop
in Iceland, aiming to see the country’s
fishing f leet use sustainable and envi-
ronmentally sound biodiesel made from
rapeseed oil in place of fossil fuels.
The Icelandic ship f leet has become
larger and more powerful in recent
years, guzzling approximately 275,000
metric tonnes of diesel fuel in one year,
according to 2010 studies. The quan-
tity of rapeseed oil necessary to match
that could be grown on 2,200km2—or
roughly just 2% of the total area of Ice-
land. “Biodiesel,” Jón wrote in an official
report for the IMA published in 2010, “is
the best renewable energy source in Ice-
land for today’s engines.”
As well as biodiesel, farmers all
across the island are harvesting rape-
seed to produce cooking oil. Ólafur col-
lects rapeseed oil in tall 500ml bottles,
all lined up waiting to be shipped this
Sunday morning—each bottle embla-
zoned with a label portraying the evoca-
tive rural setting of Þorvaldseyri. Jón
himself swears by the oil’s medicinal
qualities: “I take a spoonful of it every
morning—it’s very good for you.” By-
products from the oil can also be used
in animal feed, whilst the straw may be
used as bedding for horses.
Rapeseed is by no means a new in-
novation. “It’s been around since the Ro-
mans,” Jón says. Two varieties of rape-
seed are cultivated worldwide: Brassica
campestris (a field or turnip mustard)
and Brassica rapa (common rapeseed).
In the 1970s, the possibility of cultivat-
ing a variation of rapeseed to produce
rapeseed oil was discovered, leading to
the development of canola oil (“Cana-
dian Oil, Low Acid”). Since then produc-
tion has grown at a dramatic rate, with
a sixfold increase reported worldwide
between 1975 and 2007.
Warmer temperatures mean that the
rapeseed crop grows well in Iceland to-
day, yielding harvest results similar to
Scandinavia and Northern Europe. In
Iceland of course rapeseed growth is
strongly boosted by long summer days
with almost 24-hour sunlight.
“The only support for rapeseed har-
vesting in Iceland is coming from the
IMA,” Jón insists. “The research and de-
velopment division has spent more than
35 million krónur on the project since
2008.” Þorvaldseyri is one of ten farms
participating in the project, cultivating
rapeseed under different conditions.
Ólafur was among the first farmers
to take part in the IMA’s trial project.
“All machinery for the cultivation was
already available at the farm, since we
use the same equipment for cultivating
corn.” At Þorvaldseyri, he and his family
buy into Jón’s vision. “Since we have a lot
of good land for cultivation in Iceland,
the prospects for domestic production
are promising.”
Energy independence
Using biodiesel, the 2010 IMA report
states, would boost Iceland’s energy
independence and cut levels of green-
house gas emissions, as the rapeseed
plants bind at least double the amount of
carbon dioxide emitted by biodiesel fuel
when burned: one hectare of rapeseed
uses 6 tons of CO2, whilst being burned
as biodiesel it emits 3 tonnes.
In addition, Jón insists rapeseed of-
fers food security: “About 85% of the
harvest is used directly or indirectly
for human consumption. The rapeseed
meal can be used as food for animals,
and for humans as well—the bakery
Reynir bakari in Kópavogur, for exam-
ple, are selling rapeseed meal bread.” In
turn, it guarantees farmers a higher in-
come: “They can use the rapeseed meal
for their animals, so they don’t need to
buy food. They can use the oil for their
driving equipment and their heating de-
vices.” Above all, Jón says, “It makes the
farmer independent.”
Last spring Fréttablaðið reported that
the Icelandic oil company N1 was set to
invest in the project, ready to pump tens
of millions of krónur into what had pre-
viously been the pipe-dream of a hand-
ful of farmers.
Yet it remains crucial for Jón that
farmers such as Ólafur on his twenty
hectares in South Iceland continue to
stand as pioneers in the field. Around
130,000 hectares across the entire island
could be cultivated for rapeseed. The Ag-
ricultural University of Iceland says the
potential cultivation could be more than
four times larger. As farmers across the
island join Jón’s cause, the IMA’s vision
is becoming an increasingly tantalising
prospect.
“
Around 130,000 hectares
across the entire island
could be cultivated for
rapeseed. The Agricul-
tural University of Iceland
says the potential cultiva-
tion could be more than
four times larger.„
The Revolution Growing On Iceland’s Farms
Turning rapeseed into an environmentally friendly
alternative to fossil fuels
Words by Mark O’Brien @MarkOBrien01
Iceland’s Most Famous
Farmer
The story of Ólafur Eggertsson and
the Þorvaldseyri farm
Ólafur Eggertsson became world-
renowned in 2010 when the Eyjafjalla-
jökull volcano erupted, casting a cloud
of ash across his farm at the foot of
the glacier—photos of which appeared
all over the international press. Long
before then, however, he had become
a famous face among Icelanders.
His grandfather, Ólafur Pálsson,
arrived at Þorvaldseyri in 1906, finding
the farm in a poor state—the house in
disrepair and the surrounding fields
and meadows flooded and all but
destroyed. But this didn’t discour-
age Ólafur who bought the farm from
Icelandic poet Einar Benediktsson,
who had bought the land a year earlier.
Ólafur’s son Eggert was born in 1913,
and took control of Þorvaldseyri in the
late 1940s, launching grain cultivation
and establishing a local association
of grain farmers, before joining the
board of the Agricultural Associa-
tion of South Iceland and becoming
a respected figure in the country’s
agrarian community.
Eggert’s son Ólafur then took con-
trol of the farm in 1986, after graduat-
ing from the Agricultural College at
Hvanneyri and learning the business
from his father. He immediately set
about continuing his parents’ work,
improving the grass fields and increas-
ing production, as well as pioneering
technical innovations. Despite the
scepticism of scientists, Ólafur had his
land drilled for geothermal water in
1989 and the houses at Þorvaldseyri
have since then been heated with geo-
thermal energy. In 1997, the Minister
for Agriculture presented Ólafur and
his wife Guðný with a special award
recognising their achievements in
Icelandic agriculture.
In 2009, Ólafur
began cultivating
whole wheat
flour and barley
flour, which led
to the produc-
tion of bread
made entirely
from Icelandic wheat and
barley. That year, President Ólafur
Ragnar Grímsson bestowed him with
the Knight’s Cross in the country’s
chivalric Order of the Falcon for his
work in agriculture.
Today, visitors can stop by his
Þorvaldseyri Visitor Centre, which he
opened on April 14, 2011, one year
after the start of the Eyjafjallajökull
eruption. There he shows footage from
the eruption and sells all kinds of stuff,
including “hunks of lava, actual ash
from the volcano, T-shirts, perfume,
chocolate, photos and postcards,
as well as products from our farm,
like ground barley, whole wheat and
our own breakfast cereal made from
barley,” as his website, www.iceland-
erupts.is, states. Admission is 750 ISK.
Rapeseed
Cleaning
Drying
Pressing
Vegetable oil
Main filter
Fine filter
Safety filter
Animal fodder
Cooking oil