**1. Introduction**

The adoption of biodiesel as a fossil fuel reduction strategy in Europe has created a demand for vegetable oil as a biodiesel feedstock and a new market for the canola oil grown in the Canadian Prairies. Canola is a variety of rapeseed developed in Canada which contains reduced levels of erucic acid, making its oil palatable for human consumption, and reduced levels of a toxic glucosin, which makes its meal a potential livestock feed. Because of the extracted canola oil being suitable for use as cooking oil, canola is considered to be a new and distinct crop from rape seed in Canada.

The market acceptability of canola oil as a biodiesel feedstock in Europe depends on the Carbon Footprint (CF) of its production being significantly lower than that of conventional diesel fuel [1]. In October 2012, The European Commission amended its directive relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuel and the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. These amendments set mandatory margins for the amount of fossil CO2 required to be offset by biofuels. For biofuel installations in operation on or before 1 July 2014, biofuels must achieve a greenhouse gas emission savings of at least 35% until 31 December 2017 and at least 50% thereafter. If the physical production of biofuels starts after 1 July 2014, the greenhouse gas emission saving from the use of biofuels must be at least 60% of the fossil CO2 emissions of the equivalent petro-fuel energy.

These Directives also proposed a provision to address changes in the indirect land use given that current biofuels are mainly produced from crops grown on existing agricultural land. Therefore, if the demand for canola biodiesel continues to increase, questions arise about where the additional feedstock would be grown. The first goal of this chapter was to assess the impact

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of expanding canola production on beef production in the Prairie Provinces of Canada. The scope of this assessment excludes any substitution of beef with non-ruminant livestock in response to canola expansion. The second goal was to determine the feedback effect from this impact on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission cost of canola biodiesel.
