The name canola is commercial, invented by the Canadian agro-industry to kind of pre-empt on the product (the can- is Canada, -ola = oil). Its universal name in English is rapeseed.

It's not in fact that easy to grow (setting aside for the moment whether the methods are industrial or organic). It calls for fine tilling because the seed is very small. So it's not a no-till crop (as wheat can easily be) - at least, I've never heard of it being tried.

It's a brassica, ie the cabbage family, and is fairly demanding in terms of NPK. In industrial growing, it's often sprayed with different pesticides in spring, depending on the year and the weather/bugs it brings.

The oilcake is OK for animal feed. Animals don't like it as much as soy cake, and it has less protein too. But it's used in Europe, where we import (from US, Argentina, Brazil) practically all our soy cake, which is almost certain to be GM... So all farmers who want to certify their meat or dairy products GM-free (whether organic or not), are almost automatically using rapeseed cake somewhere.

It's a good plant in a crop rotation, leaving a large amount of organic matter (even though it's demanding fertilizer-wise).

The oil (preference for organic!) is, as Sven says, one of the best for human nutrition. I consume lots of it.

So, in all, I'd say positive. Including for its use as fuel for diesel motors (can be used as is for older engines). I'd particularly back its use for local farming and municipal vehicles. I'm not enthusiastic about pushing it into largescale industrial projects, simply because that would be calling for increasingly industrial agriculture with GMs and pesticides.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind