David I. Theodoropoulos, critical of plant invasions
Johnson3591@aol.com (Mon, 08 Dec 2003 18:18:59 PST)

Hi,

I cannot use this occasion to weigh in for, or against, the USDA and its
increasingly permit-based regulations. For better or worse the USDA seems bent or
regulating everything in sight, or perhaps a bit more.

However, I do wish to comment directly about David I. Theodoropoulos. He has
written a number of essays over the years, and has written a book called
"Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience." His pseudonym is JL Hudson, and
he runs the JL Hudson Seedbank that he bills as "A Public Access Seedbank." I
would make several points about this author:
1. His seed bank is excellent and innovative, and is truly public access.
You can send in seeds and get credit with which to order other seeds.
2. He is wonderfully knowledgeable about plants, seeds, plant uses and other
facets of plants, including patenting issues.
3. As near as I can tell his work is not scientific (I'm putting on my
botanist hat here). By this I mean he does not publish experimental results in
peer-reviewed journals of scientific societies or other accepted peer-reviewed
outlets. He has published non experimental type manuscripts (essays), and he is
a member of many scientific societies (remember, all you have to do is pay a
fee to belong).

When a person does not publish in scientific journals there are typically 2
reasons proposed: 1) a conspiracy is at work that seeks to prevent the truth
from being heard, or 2) the work does not exist or is of insufficient quality
to pass peer-review. Either way, JL Hudson/D. I. Theodoropoulos has no typical
scientific credentials; but he does have much in the way of criticism of the
work of others. Additionally, he does have a lifetime of sociological and
horticultural work to his credit.

JL Hudson (a.k.a. David I. Theodoropoulos) has written extensively (in non
scientific settings) about the errors of ecologists and other biologists who
promote the idea of "ecosystems" or "native plant communities," etc. Sometimes
he comes out and says this forthrightly; other times he cloaks his comments in
euphemism. I use the following 2 quotes to illustrate my meaning.

JL Hudson Quote 1:
FROM: <A HREF="http://www.dtheo.com/NativesVs.Exotics.htm">http://www.dtheo.com/NativesVs.Exotics.htm</A>
"In this spirit I would like to point out that there is absolutely no
biological validity to the concepts of 'native' and 'exotic' species, nor is there
evidence that man's introduction of species into new habitats has any negative
impact on global biological diversity."

JL Hudson Quote 2:
FROM: <A HREF="http://www.dtheo.com/Abstracts.htm">http://www.dtheo.com/Abstracts.htm</A>
"Field work among nativists [those who proclaim native plant communities are
real] found high resistance to contradictory evidence, faulty ingroup/outgroup
categorizations, self-sealing arguments, defensive projection, conformation
with the frustration-aggression-displacement theory of prejudice, and strong
parallels with the conspiracy-theory psychologies of xenophobia and racism. The
origins of the anti-exotics movement in the 1930s in National Socialist
Germany confirm this."

By all means, read his book if you want an entertaining view of the world,
especially plant ecology and the native plant movement. And, by all means, in
contrast to some reviewers, feel free to be "turned off" by his unfavorable
comparisons between the discipline of Plant Ecology and Nazi Socialism.

Cordially,