To Kill or To Care?: Invasive Species Science, Local Knowledges, and Kudzu

• In Event: Controlling Plants, Growing Environments - I

Abstract

Kudzu (Pueraria montana) is a perennial, deciduous woody vine that produces purple flower structures and the plant has long been demonized as an invasive species in the United States. The biological sciences, policymakers and conservationists have legitimized chemical warfare on Kudzu by narrating the plant as a threat to forests, communities and native ecosystems. As these narratives rose to dominance, Kudzu became popularly known as the vine that ate the South. Kudzu is often described as a threatening menace—a scourge that is infesting, taking over, invading, and threatening native species and entire ecosystems. Despite a technoscientific war on Kudzu, local and lay knowledges that challenge narratives of invasion and danger are circulating widely in recent years. In contrast to the authoritarian, militarized narratives of science, local and lay knowledges in the U.S. south offer valuable insight into alternative approaches to thinking, living and relating with Kudzu. As advanced technoscience blankets ecosystems with herbicides, many laypeople accept changing landscapes and ecosystem as they attempt to live as well as possible with Kudzu. The current paper uses narrative analysis to examine the politics, ethics, and assumptions of these competing stories and wonders whether and how we should care for, and kill, Kudzu.

Author

• Garrett Bunyak