in the 1980s, the jerusalem artichoke also gained some notoriety when its seeds were planted by midwestern us farmers at the prodding of an agricultural pyramid scheme. there was little market for the tuber in that part of the us at the time, but farmers were assured it would soon appear on the commodity market. the only profits were realized by the initial distributors and the first few levels of farmers (who sold their seeds to other levels of the pyramid). as a result, many of the farms that had planted large quantities of the crop were ruined.