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To: craig crawford who wrote (55)	6/2/2001 3:37:32 PM
From: craig crawford	Respond to of 1643

Thursday May 31 4:39 PM ET USDA Venture Plan Flops dailynews.yahoo.com By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The idea was to invest government money in agricultural start-ups to turn sugar cane into furniture, sunflower seeds into motor oil and milkweed into comforters - with taxpayers reaping the returns. But some $40 million later, the Agriculture Department's much ballyhooed experiment to create the government equivalent of a venture capital firm has delivered hardly any return, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Congress has given up and shut the doors to new spending. Investment money to 16 companies has been written off as a total loss, and an additional 28 companies have failed to produce any significant returns - although there's still hope for some of them. All told, investments totaling $40.3 million have brought just $1.2 million in returns since 1993, the documents show. (excerpts)