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Show faricon for snore disGOvor oanf loujors Centuries ago, American Indians used the oil from native na-tive sunflowers on food and as a hair ointment. Today sunflower seed oil, a high quality, polyunsaturated cooking oil has become a major export crop for thou, sands of U.S. farmers. In the last 10 years, sun. flower seed oil has become a lucrative export crop t0 Europe, especially for farm, ers In north and South Da. kota, Minnesota and Texas, The reason for the market explosion is many fold. Sunflower produces a high quality oil. It has a high polyunsaturate level and stays fresh longer than other oils such as soybean oil. u has a high smoke point which means you don't get as much smoke or grease in the room during cooking. A steady market has de. veloped in the last few years for products like sunflower oil becuase of concern about high blood cholesterol and heart attacks. Researchhas shown that blood cholesterol levels can be reduced by decreasing total fat intake and substituting unsaturated fats such as sunflower oil for saturated fats. Sunflower oil was com. mercially produced in the U.S. during World War n when vegetable oil was in short supply. However sev. eral scientific inovations ol the '60's and early 70's made it economically feasible to mass poduce it. In the early 60's Russian scientists discovered away to increase the oil content of the seed by one third, raising it to about 45. A new hybrid raised the crop yield 25. By 1977, 90 percent of the U.S. sun-flower sun-flower plants were hybrids, Today they're all hybrids, The U.S. is the largest sunflower exported in the world. In 1978 U.S. farmers were paid $418 million for their crop. In 1979 the figure i was $666 million. Because it is native to the UJS., the sunflower Is widely adaptable to most U, soil types. The current drout and heat wave in the Midwest and South have hurt sunflower yields, but not appreciably ap-preciably due to the plant's deep tap roots. The sunflower has low' fertilizer and water requirements require-ments than corn and its growing grow-ing season is shorter thai for soybeans. With minor adjustments, equipment used for grain planting and harvesting har-vesting can be used for the sunflower. |