AbstractThe US safflower industry has matured in the relatively short period of 15 years to a position of stature in terms of stable oil prices, modern processing, and world‐wide distribution. This dry land crop is grown in rotation with barley, wheat, rice and other grains. The higher oil content seed developed by the agronomists' reduction of hull content content has made safflower more valuable to domestic and foreign markets. US production has increased to more than 300,000 tons. Processing of the seed is done by conventional methods, preferably continuous serew pressing and solvent extraction.The future of safflower will depend primarily upon the demand for linoleic‐acid based products舒either in foods such as the new margarines and other polyunsaturated products, or industrial uses of nonyellowing drying oils, and chemical modifications of linoleic acid. Secondarily, it will depend upon more sophisticated utilization of the protein by‐products.