Sunflowers

Sunflowers are native to North America, and in the early 1500’s Spanish Conquistadors took their seeds back to Europe. While it remained a mainly ornamental crop, a twist of fate and the Russian Orthodox Church changed the sunflower’s trajectory in the 18th century. The Church published a list of banned foods and oils for Lent, but sunflowers weren’t included. Demand for sunflower oil subsequently boomed in present-day Russia and Ukraine causing acreage to rapidly expand. Russia established the first scientific breeding program for oil and edible seed varieties as well. Despite being a native crop of the Western Hemisphere, nearly all development of sunflower as a crop occurred in Russia until the mid-20th century.

As immigration from Eastern Europe to the USA and Canada increased, farmers brought their sunflower seeds with them – a crop native to North America was returning with better plant stock. Since the 1960’s, further research in France and the USA has allowed true hybrid sunflower development to accelerate as sunflower oil is considered a healthy oil option much like olive oil. Sunflower oil is now the third highest oil producing crop in the world after soy and rapeseed.