The great Jerusalem artichoke circus : the buying and selling of the rural American dream / Joseph A. Amato ; foreword by Paul Gruchow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Amato, Joseph Anthony.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Horticultural products industry--United States.

Horticultural products industry.

American Energy Farming Systems.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Buying and selling of the rural American dream

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c1993.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1981, near the end of America's second post-World War II energy crisis, and at the onset of the nations most recent farm crisis, American Energy Farming Systems began to sell and distribute what it deemed a "providential plant" destined to be a new and saving crop- the Jerusalem Artichoke. This volume recounts this story of the bizarre intersection of evangelical Christianity, a mythical belief in the powers of a new crop, and the depression of the U.S. farm economy in the 1980's.

Contents:

Contents; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction: A Beckoning Plant; 1. A Country Prophet; 2. A Bulldozing Businessman; 3. Buyers and Sellers of Seed; 4. A Perfect Consultant; 5. What Made the Company Run; 6. Killing off the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg; 7. Folding up the Tent; 8. The County Attorney and His Investigator; 9. The Lost Covenant; Conclusion: The Planets Went Astray; Chronology; AEFS Organizational Structure; Notes; Sources; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-242) and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-8547-9

OCLC:

476093338