Well well

Headed out this evening to get a shot of one of the countless fields of Oilseed Rape. They do look quite striking but I had an ulterior motive I was going to have a rant about the stuff.

I had been told on humerous occasions that it was incredibly bad for Asthma and Hay fever sufferers, and that teh UK was the only country in Europe which allowed the production of it with it being banned elsewhere. Certainly th esmell walking up to the field suggested this may be the case as it has a particularly overpowering smell which is fairly unpleasant when you get close.

The thing is I did some checking on Wikipedia prior to posting this and I found out that most, if not all, of what I'd been told was nonsense. Firstly Britain is only Europes third largest producer behind Germany and France and, in fact, we produce less than half the anmount that France does. I also discovered that The pollen from Rapeseed is distributed by insects rather than through the air so does not add much to the pollen count.

I guess you learn something every day.

That said I know the content on Wikipedia is written by users rater than being a proper encyclopedia so there is obviously a chance that the entry could have been written by a representative of Monsanto or another party with a vested interest, so if we have any biologists or botanists on here who can confirm either way...

Have a good weekend everyone.