Fermenting for the Future

Fermenting for the Future reveals the fascinating story of tsukemono, the rich variety of hundreds of different kinds of pickles that have been an integral part of the Japanese diet for over a thousand years. Today, the decline of agrodiversity and industrial pasteurization has led to the disappearance of many traditional tsukemono along with their fermented benefits. Aya Hirata Kimura uncovers how the modernization of food and agricultural processes transforms not only human relationship to plants and the land but also the microbial diversity in our food systems and bodies. While fermenting stinky tsukemono was once seen as a task of domestic drudgery, Kimura shows how, as a result of the growing awareness of the drawbacks of antibiotic modernity, it can also be appreciated as an apparatus of sociocultural change. By examining the complex socio-environmental assemblages of tsukemono, Kimura deepens our understanding of the contemporary politics of sustainability, food, and the body.