Blake Nicholson, Associated Press via Agnet May 2/05

Sunflower industry officials are, according to this story, working to restore federal funding for research they say is crucial to the future of the crop and a hoped for reversal in the nationwide shortage of snacking seeds.

The story explains that the budget President Bush sent to Congress eliminates funding for a molecular geneticist position at a federal lab in Fargo and for a multistate research initiative dealing with a crippling sunflower crop disease.

Brady Vick, sunflower research leader at the Red River Valley Agricultural Research Center in Fargo, was quoted as saying, "It's got to be restored; otherwise we're in big trouble."

The story adds that an outbreak of the disease sclerotinia in the late 1990s led to a push for more research of the fungus that affects not only sunflowers but other crops including soybeans and canola. Congress began appropriating money for a research initiative in states from Washington to Illinois.