In 2018 Sunflower City is conducting R&D to determine which products will benefit the communities, in which sunflowers are grown, the most. Over time Sunflower City will offer products for purchase that will continue to support the mission of the company.
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Sunflower City is focusing on the three areas of products that can be brought to market:

• Cut flowers
• Edible seeds and edible oil
• Oils to be used in products for health and wellness
• Oils to be utilized for clean burning biodiesel production

How does Chicago look at it’s vacant land dilemma and think creatively about its use? Sunflowers will play a role.

​Sunflower City has created a strategy for utilizing vacant lots in a manner that:

• is lower cost relative to current urban agricultural practices
• is effective in helping to beautify urban areas
• increasingly maps the levels of heavy metals and toxins in soils throughout the communities of Chicago
• diminishes the use of fossil fuels to manage vacant land
• accelerate the ways in which urban agriculture can engage the community and develop age-oriented curriculum
• adds a clean energy R&D component to the urban agricultural arena
• studies the impact of natural beauty on individual and collective consciousness

In 2012 the founder of Sunflower City and some friends were conducting a clean energy research project at the corner of 43rd and Greenwood Av in Chicago cultivating sunflowers.
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The basic premise was growing a crop that both remediates toxins and heavy metals from soil while also growing oil seed that can be used for the production of biodiesel fuel. However, the most unanticipated yet important result of the study was the joyful, spirited and connected response from the neighborhood. Something important happened. Some sort of engagement took place. Vital emotion was evoked within the neighborhood. And to understand and explore the reason for it has been the path leading to Sunflower City.