48. Fermentation in the age of pandemic and the Anthropocene
Aya Hirata Kimura, University of Hawaii
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês
Fermentation and fermented foods are increasingly popular. The COVID pandemic has heightened the interest in enhancing immunity and gut microbes. It can also be seen as an exciting field of capitalist bioeconomy to mine the new components for nutraceuticals. Yet fermentation can also be a way to reconnect with traditional foodways and crafts. Furthermore, fermentation practitioners are sometimes seeing fermentation as a mean for epistemological transformation as well as ontological practice of tuning into nonhumans. Here, they evoke the idea of multispecies constitution, natureculture and Gaia in elaborating the relationship between humans and microbes in fermentation. Fermentation therefore stands at the intersections of important STS conversations about bioeconomy, nutritionism, multispecies entanglements, Anthropocene, and foodways. The current fermentation boom should also be historically analyzed in relation not only to the Pasteurian shift (Latour) and the post-Pasteurian trends (Paxon) but also to the pandemic and the climate crisis.
STS is well-poised to explore the following questions that are important in articulating the political and social dimensions of fermentation.
In what ways are different kinds of scientific disciplines mobilized in the making of fermentation boom?
How are traditional fermented foods and microbes being incorporated into the bioeconomy?
How do fermentation practitioners gain knowledge about microbes in their everyday encounters?
How do different microbes emerge at the intersections of the bioeconomy and DIY movements?
How does the current fermentation boom relate to the Pasteurian and post-Pasteurian trends identified in the STS literature?
