A farmer claims that homegrown rapeseed,

A farmer claims that homegrown rapeseed could address the cooking oil crisis.

More domestically farmed rapeseed, according to a farmer, might address the present cooking oil problem.

On her 500-acre farm near Bere Regis, Dorset, Emma Foot farms rapeseed.

She acknowledged that fewer farmers were planting the crop since a critical insecticide was banned in 2013, but she was willing to risk the harvest failing.

Exports of sunflower oil have plummeted in recent months due to the conflict in Ukraine, resulting in a global shortage.

As a result, customers have turned to alternate cooking oils, but UK farmers have grown less oilseed rape in recent years as a result of the pesticide restriction enacted to protect bees.

The EU banned the chemicals after research revealed they were harming bees’ brains, yet it resulted in an increase of flea beetles and significant crop losses.

Following the decline of rapeseed farming in the UK, imports of oils from other nations have become necessary.

While cultivating oilseed rape is “difficult,” Ms Foot believes it will reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign imports.

“I do find it a little bit odd that we’re importing from countries like Australia that are utilizing seed treatments that we’re not authorized to use,” Ms Foot, who grows rapeseed on 130 acres, said.

Despite the fact that it “does come at a risk” following her death, the Bere Regis farmer was devoted to producing the crop here.