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New Crops News, Spring 1994, vol. 4 no. 1

Jerusalem Artichoke Scam

The dark side of new crops is chronicled in a new book by Joseph A. Amato entitled Jerusalem Artichoke: The Buying and Selling of the Rural American Dream (University of Minnesota Press, 2037 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis MN 55455-3092). This fast paced book describes a recent pyramid scheme to sell planting stock of Jerusalem artichoke in the Midwest, when no real market for the crop, in fact, existed. The scheme ended in large losses to growers and prison terms for the perpetrators.