Full Description
Fermenting for the Future reveals the fascinating story of tsukemono, the rich variety of pickles that have been an integral part of the Japanese diet for over a thousand years. Today, industrial pasteurization and declining agrodiversity have led to the disappearance of many of the hundreds of traditional tsukemono along with their benefits to human health. While fermenting vegetables and fruit was once a task of domestic drudgery, Aya Hirata Kimura shows how the art of tsukemono can now be appreciated as a catalyst for sociocultural change amid a growing awareness of the drawbacks of antibiotic modernity. By examining the complex socio‑environmental facets of tsukemono, Kimura deepens our understanding of how the modernization of food and agriculture transform not only human relationships to plants and the land but also the microbial diversity in our food systems and bodies.
Contents
Contents
Introduction
Part 1. Antibiotic Modulations
1. Tsukemono in Imperial Japan: Industrial Factories and the Military
2. Delocalization of Tsukemono and Loss of Agrobiodiversity
3. Antibiotic Tsukemono and Fermentation Attunement
Part 2. Probiotic Turns
4. Food With/Out Fūdo
5. Kin-katsu: Probiotic Commodification
6. Microbes That Transpire
7. Cultivating and Living In Between (Awai)
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Fermentation Assemblages in Kyoto Tsukemono
Glossary of Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
