AbstractResearch on the effects of genetics and growing location on cottonseed has shown that oil and fatty acid composition could be improved if geneticists and agronomists would strive for improved seed quality as vigorously as they do for improved fiber quality. Breeding of glandless or gossypol‐free cottonseed was a genetic breakthrough. Glandless varieties are now available that produce yields having the quality of fiber and seed equivalent to those of glanded cultivars. Oil, food‐grade lecithin and meal byproducts are readily processed from glandless cottonseeds because of the absence of gossypol. Major research programs on cottonseed processing include: (a) testing alternative screw‐press and extrusion operations for efficient direct solvent oil extraction; (b) developing alternative solvent extraction systems with ethanol, isopropanol and supercritical fluids; (c) using gas chromatographic/mass spectrophotometric techniques to characterize enzymatic and nonenzymatic mechanisms that produce secondary oxidation off‐flavor products; and (d) controlling hexane losses in solvent extraction systems.