Available From UC Press

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.  

“Fermenting for the Future shines as a stunning example of what Aya Kimura does best: take an everyday food item (here, Japanese pickles), chew through its microbial histories, and finally reassemble, raising questions we didn't even know to ask. Astonishing.”—Christine R. Yano, author of Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific"In this fascinating account of tsukemono's commercialization as well as contemporary efforts to recover its probiotic capacities, Kimura reveals a good deal of indeterminacy, much like outcomes of fermentation itself."—Julie Guthman, author of The Problem with Solutions: Why Silicon Valley Can't Hack the Future of Food"With clear and crisp prose, Kimura takes us into the intricate world of tsukemono—modest yet essential to Japanese food culture. An amazing read that traces microbial, social, and political entanglements and enriches our sense of human existence as entangled with food and the environment."—Shiho Satsuka, author of Nature in Translation: Japanese Tourism Encounters the Canadian Rockies"Fermenting for the Future will help scholars across disciplines understand the importance of microbial diversity in agriculture, food manufacturing and retailing, environment, and human health."—Keiko Tanaka, Professor of Rural Sociology, University of Kentucky"A conceptually rich and engaging account of the many lives and aliveness of fermented vegetables in Japanese cuisine. Kimura carefully traces the connections between the microbial cultures within tsukemono and the culinary, sensual, ecological and political dynamics of tsukemono production, retailing, and consumption."—Gyorgy Scrinis, author of Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice