Kudzu was not introduced by Fairchild. It was introduced for fragrance in 1876, and likely even before that. It was not until it was widely planted as a make-work program that it began to spread. But, following private property rights, it should be the introducers responsibility to remove an invasive from their own and others property. Fairchild was insightful enough to do it on his own before it became a major problem for him, something very few of our government officials have.
Kudzu has been found to moderate blood glucose levels, aid in the metabolization of fat deposits when consumed and many more uses. It is also edible par-boiled and cooked with butter like spinach.
Aaron Floden
--- On Thu, 10/22/09, Ellen Hornig <hornig@earthlink.net> wroteRecently I reread David Fairchild's _The World Was My Garden_ (the truly
magical autobiography of one of the great masterminds of US plant
introduction), and was amazed to find that he grew kudzu on his own property
and then struggled to get rid of it *before* the Soil Conservation Service
started planting it widely to control erosion (Fairchild, p. 328). This
suggests two things to me: first, a private individual (collector) could in
fact be responsible for introducing a pest (Fairchild, realizing his
mistake, paid "over two hundred dollars", somewhere between 1900-1905, I
believe, to get rid of it, but not everyone would make a comparable
investment); second, information does not always travel far and widely
enough, because Fairchild was apparently not aware of the Soil Conservation
Service's efforts until he saw them written up in a bulletin. There is
nothing in his book to suggest he tried to interfere or get them to
backtrack.
I toss this in only because, self-interest aside, the importation and
cultivation of new species is NOT always harmless, private growers CAN get
their hands on and circulate a new pest, and I am therefore a fencesitter on
the subject of regulation, because I honestly don't know what is the best
(or even a good and effective) approach.
Ellen