>Euell Gibbons did not mention the rape plant specifically, but
>did say "There are about ten species of the true wild mustards,
>or Brassicas, found growing wild in this country, and all of them
>are perfectly safe for human food."  Well, the plant used in oil
>production is a hybrid of two wild Brassicas: Brassica
>oleracea Linnaeus and Brassica campestris.  Both are edible.  The
>first is the cabbage/kale family; the second is the rutabaga
>family.

So what? Rhubarb shoots are edible in reasonable quantities,
yet the leaves are considered toxic. We are talking about the
*seeds* of industrial breeds and GMs of low-erucic oilseed rape
and the oil extracted therefrom.

Canola or not, rapeseed erucic acid must be removed through
refining, which by definition makes it unPaleo. EA is most
definitely toxic, with acceptable levels being set by industrial
lobby based on industry-sponsored, interest-conflicted
"science", not truly objective toxicological studies or long-
term human epidemiological research.

Consumers of "virgin" -- meaning, presumably, unrefined --
canola oil are putting themselves at risk. Doubly so
for unrefined cottonseed oil. Wanna be sterile? Give your-
self a good case of hypokalaemia (low blood potassium)?
Go ahead and cook your stir-fry in raw cottonseed oil:
Zero sperm count can taste good and be cheap to boot.

As for the late Mr. "Did you ever eat a pine tree? Some
parts are edible! Let-me-hawk-Grape-Nuts-cereal" Gibbons:
I stalked that wild asparagus with the best of them,
but concluded that, since Gibbons died of *stomach cancer*,
he did not necessarily know what the hell we was
doing... or that what he was eating was really healthful.
I have never since felt tempted by cattail root
or boiled bistort, and long ago threw out my last batch
of red-sumac rhus-ade.