Canary seed (annual canary grass) is mostly grown for the bird food market. The farms growing canary seed at present are not organic farms. Most are in Canada, Hungary and Argentina. The organic farm we used to deal with in Canada is no longer in production.
From what I have found out, “Annual Canarygrass seed is similar to oat in mineral composition. The caryopsis is higher in ash, oil, and phosphorus but lower in fiber than concentrations common in corn, pea, or fieldbean. Canarygrass caryopses have higher concentrations of all eight essential amino acids than does wheat or corn, and are higher in sulfur-containing amino acids than pea or fieldbean.” This info is about 10 years old, but gives me something to shoot for in using quantities of replacements in our mixes.
The downside to the information I found is that it doesn’t address why organic canary seed isn’t currently available. In my opinion, it must not be lucrative for farms to grow organic canary seed for several reasons.
1. It’s not a human-consumed product, so there’s not a huge market for the product.
2. Not many farms growing it, so not much competition to keep the price worth it for the farmers.
3. Harvesting needed special equipment as canary seed grows with itchy little hairs on it that must be removed. These hairs are dangerous to be inhaled and can be cancer-causing.
4. Canary seed plants get overrun by weeds easily.
5. Canary seed is sensitive to higher temperatures and drought. Global warming can’t be helping.
In my understanding, it seems canary seed is sensitive to herbicides because it is a grass. And it isn’t very attractive to bugs and diseases. Perhaps, conventional canary seed may, as a result, have few pesticide and herbicide residues.
But, I will not use canary seed in our mixes unless I can find a certified organic source.
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What about this new article going around about the benefits of canary seeds for people?
I also have read articles about it being good for people, but no one I have located is mass producing it for people. It has suggested uses for a substitute for sesame seed and has been part of middle eastern diets in the past, so it is not totally out as a human food. They are now producing a genetically-modified seed with no hairs, too. Perhaps in the future if people will eat it, there will be a push for organic canary seed. It does seem to have good nutritional values.