Word: flowerings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Growing consumer consciousness about health has helped the market. Flower oil costs 10% to 15% more than oil made from corn or soybeans, but its cholesterol content is lower; it has 70% polyunsaturated fats, vs. about 55% for corn oil. Hunt-Wesson in September began national distribution of a flower oil named Sunlite. Procter & Gamble is selling a blend of flower and soybean oil called Puritan, and Lever Brothers is marketing Promise, a part-flower margarine...
...some sunflower seeds from the Soviet Union, which is the leading producer. At the same time, Cargill and rival Honeymead Products set out to persuade farmers to try the new crop. That was not easy; the companies had to promise skeptical growers that they would buy their entire flower harvests at prices above the going rates for wheat and other crops...
...breakthrough came in 1974, when both Cargill and the Department of Agriculture developed hybrid seeds that increased yields by 20% an acre. This made sunflowers financially attractive to farmers, who now net up to 25% more for flower than for wheat...
...crop, flower resists frost, has a short growing season, and is less affected by drought than wheat. It also has some drawbacks. Says Farmer Tom Sinner, of Casselton, N. Dak.: "You plant flower because it brings a better return than other crops, but weeds and insects just love it." Agronomists fear that repeated plantings of flower on the same stretch of soil will so infest it with insects and diseases that it will become unusable for that crop...
Such considerations have not dampened the enthusiasm of flower farmers, and their fondness for Helianthus at least has a historical precedent. When Francisco Pizarro's conquistadors invaded Peru in 1532, they found Inca priestesses wearing sunflower emblems-symbolic of the sun god-on their breasts. The material: solid gold...