Fermentation As Metaphor

This is a thought-provoking reflection about what fermentation can teach us about ourselves, our culture in relation to food, life and transformative change. It is especially relevant at this time in relation to complex life processes where the metaphor of war on bacteria and viruses rather than mutual coexistence is profoundly unhelpful. He calls for a transformation and localisation of food production and therefore security and uses the term microbiopolitics to encourage ecological thinking and biodiversity and minimise the risks of microbial resistance through selection pressure – a risk we are currently running. The author gives an interesting example in relation to wine where we used to allow crushed grapes to sit with their skins and stems until they began to ferment. Once you scale up, you need chemicals to kill the organisms on the grapes and for sanitation purposes – this monoculture thinking mirrors the adversarial processes of big agriculture. It is good to remember that fermentation produces the bubbles in champagne as well as that the natural dynamics of biodiversity 'will not permit monocultures to be sustained'. The final message of the book is that fermentation is a powerful metaphor with infinite regenerative power and that mutation is a creative regenerative force within human cultures – it is an encouraging thought.