This rapeseed field is located on the Mecklenburger Bucht, the largest bay on the German shore of the Baltic Sea, near the lighthouse of Bastorf. Rapeseed originates from the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, where the oil was used for consumption and as lamp oil. From the 17th century on it became the most important oilseed-crop in the Netherlands and Northern Germany. But its use was limited to lamp oil, lubricant in steam engines and the production of soap. Because of its high content of erucic-acid, rapeseed oil tastes bitter, making it unfit for human consumption or animal food. But in the 70's new rapeseed varieties, poor in erucic-acid, were produced, of which the oil could be used for food purposes and the rest product, oil-cake, for cattle feed. Nowadays rapeseed is also used for the production of biofuel.