Fermentation as a catalyst for social change, ft. Sandor Katz

What can we learn from wild fermentation?

Last year, I participated in a workshop to kuʻi kalo (pound taro) to make paʻi ʻai — the resulting pounded taro that is often then let sit to ferment into poi. This is an ancestrally significant staple food for Kānaka Maoli in Hawaiian culture.

I remember talking to the Kumu (teacher) and asking him: “Since the kalo was first cooked before we started pounding them, they would have been sterilized from the cooking process. So the resulting fermented poi that is a living food rich in probiotics — is the bacterial community then added back into the paʻi ʻai from our hands as we are working the kalo?”

He affirmed my question, telling me that indeed, the microbes are worked back into the paʻi ʻai through our hands, and also from the environment, the pōhaku kuʻi ʻai (the stone pounder), and the papa kuʻi ʻai (wooden board used to pound on).

The Kumu went on to tell me about how the “probiotics” from fermented foods are not all equal, and that there are more health benefits when we consume living foods fermented locally compared to, say, store-bought yogurt shipped in from far away.

Intuitively, this made sense to me. It reminded me of people talking about the benefits of eating local honey (such as supporting with pollen allergies) because it is produced in conversation between bees and the bioregion's pollinating plants.

So I wondered if there were research being done on what the Kumu was saying — even if my body already resonated with it.

But then I thought about the limitations of Western Science — both in terms of institutional biases in funding, and the reductionist approach that it takes. Studies carried out with these lenses are limited in terms of their ability to neatly create “controls” and decontextualized environments, and in how they view generalizability and replicability across contexts as measures of credibility.

For some inquiries of truth, these methods of deduction and attempted objectivity work fabulously well.

But they do feel at odds with questions of life that are fundamentally about whole contexts, entangled webs of relationships, and beings, bodies, and habitats that cannot be separated nor standardized.

I spoke about this with Sophie Strand a few years ago when we discussed how mushrooms are syntheses of each of their unique and ever-changing, hyper-localized environments — and how they challenge desires to control and universalize in order to know.

My latest interview with fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz added to this discourse as well, as he points out:

“Many microbiologists think that it's inappropriate for us to use our concept of ‘species’ with bacteria because bacteria are inherently shape-shifters and not stable for the course of a lifetime.”

While there is a lot of research funding going into the world of “probiotics” — looking at possible strains of bacteria that could be generalizable in their health benefits across diverse bodies (as such information can be used to create patented probiotic products for mass market) — I am not sure if there are studies being done on hyper-localized microbial relations, let alone ones that follow evolving bacterial relations as they shapeshift across time and bodies.

While all of the above continue to develop, I remember that I do not need stamps of approval from institutional research to know, in my gut, that deepening the ongoing dialogue between my personal microbiome and my environmental microbiome can support my overall well-being — and literal connection to place.

“Acclimation” but at the microbial level, perhaps. Microbialization to place?

“When you’re fermenting local vegetables, you are literally eating your environment and making your environment part of you.” – Sandor Katz

If you're curious to dive deeper into the ancient art of fermentation, how our world has become “anti-microbial” and therefore “anti-diversity” in so many ways, and how we can see ourselves as “starter cultures” for fermenting social change, I welcome you to join me in my latest conversation with Sandor.

(Tap in to this conversation here or via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any podcast app, and view our transcript and episode resources here.)

Episode artwork by isadora machado; episode song feature by Wondrousound

“Wherever in the world our ancestors come from, fermented foods that are rich in bacteria are part of our cultural legacy.” – Sandor Katz

About Sandor Katz

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. He is the author of five books: Wild Fermentation; The Art of Fermentation; The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved; Fermentation as Metaphor; and his latest, Fermentation Journeys. Sandor's books, along with the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts.

Learn more about Sandor’s work, writing, and workshops here.

Invitation into practice:

• Sandor shares a beginner-friendly introduction on how to get started in fermenting vegetables during our conversation. What do you have accessible to you that you'd like to try fermenting?

• In what other ways can you engage more deeply with locally fermented foods/beverages?

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Sending bubbly ferments of care!