He shared this award with Isreal’s, Ilan Chet, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who contrib- uted to the biological control of plant disease. Dr. Bob McGinnis, a former head of
the University of Manitoba agriculture department (1965 to 1975) and dean of its faculty of agriculture (1979 to 1989) recalls Dr. Stefansson’s arrival in the university's plant science depart- ment in the early 1950s. At that time, the province had desig-
nated the university’s agricultural facul- ty as the research arm of the provincial department of agriculture, and put up funds for the university to hire research
localgardener.net
scientists. Baldur Stefansson, then with a newly-acquired University of Manito- ba
M.Sc., was the first researcher hired. He quickly got down to work, look- the potential for improving
ing at
soybeans and rapeseed to produce an attractive edible oil crop suited to the prairie’s temperate climate. He decided very quickly that the potential lay with rapeseed, and within a remarkably short period of time had produced the forerunner of today’s “canola” plant. In an interview in the late 1990s, Dr.
Stefansson explained why he chose to focus on the oilseed research in his lab. At that time, he observed, the prai- ries were largely turned over to grains
production. “We were exporting wheat and barley for low prices against trade barriers that I thought were unfair. “Yet if you look at the major nutri-
ents we eat, there are three of them: carbohydrates, proteins and fats in oils. In both Canada and the U.S. we get almost 20 per cent of our diet from fats and oils. “Here we were with millions of acres
of land, and we had difficulty selling our produce. But we were importing most of our edible oil. That did not make sense. So I started trying to do something to improve our supply of edible oils.” Stefansson recalled that he
“tried Fall 2016 • 27
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