Fermented Landscapes: Lively Processes of Socio-environmental Transformation ed. by Colleen C. Myles

Abstract

Reviewed by: Fermented Landscapes: Lively Processes of Socio-environmental Transformation ed. by Colleen C. Myles Romário S. Basílio Fermented Landscapes: Lively Processes of Socio-environmental Transformation. Colleen C. Myles, ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020. Pp. xi+367, black & white illustrations. $55.00, hardcover, ISBN 978-1-4962-0776-0. $55.00, eBook, ISBN 978-1-4962-1991-6. Fermented Landscapes, edited by Colleen Myles, who writes the introduction and coauthored other chapters, offers an exciting metaphor as an initial, driving idea (possibly as a framework). This book consists of three sections that discuss general inquiries related to conceptualization (part I), some cases studies on "landscapes of ferment" (part II), and finally, considerations about the field and the proposed "paradigm" (part III). The main question of these studies is if landscapes can be transformed by fermentation processes. This is also driven by an important problem: what is the distinction between the objects under this "fermentation" and other forms of landscape analysis? In part I (chapter 1), Myles attempts to conceptualize the "fermentation" process, first in the microbiological universe, then in the social field. However, it is not clear if the definition suggested in this introduction is able to guide the rest of the studies of the book. Despite an overquoting of Michael Pollan (Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, 2013), further conceptual dialogue is absent. This model of a "social organism," in the form of a microbiota environment, resembles the biological analogies of Herbert Spencer (The Social Organism, 1860) but follows a vague bibliographical direction (in endnote 7 of chapter [End Page 119] 1, 17–18; see also chapters 10 and 12). They ask how the "innovations in food bioprocesses have had significant impacts on landscape and society," even being seen as "vital actors at the intersection(s) of cultural tradition, food production and politics, and (agrarian) landscapes" (5). There is a wide range of methodological approaches, but it becomes evident that the term "fermentation" is used figuratively, not as a concept. In chapter 2, for example, the guiding debate is around place identity, place making, landscape as a commodity, and its consumption. These are aspects which are repeated in the following sections. What appears to be present sometimes is the use of "fermented" as a synonym of "succeeded" (chapter 3, Overton), in addition to some variations of the term. In part II, despite the lack of theoretical formulations (chapter 4, Holtkamp, Lavy, and Weaver), one can read interesting and well-written documentation of the wines of the Sierra Nevada, Texas Hill, and New Zealand; Kentucky Bourbon's historical identity; cider in the UK; beer, distilleries, and the immigration of people, germs, and technology. Furthermore, we see that cocktails, tea, and chocolate in the US, and other booze zones/processes, are analyzed to reveal how fermentation works and transforms/creates different landscapes. Concerning the conceptualization, part III has more crucial contributions. One can read attempts to define the term, with "fermentation is a process of working with spatial affordances" (269); especially interesting are some of the critiques of its use and the application of alternative methodologies. The research-creation of chapter 10 is a good point about the debate of "decentralizing the human," thus scrutinizing the politics of purity. The most exciting theoretical debates are in the next sections: problems around these "borrowed concepts" and the possible fermentation fetishism (chapter 11, Murray); dialogues with the biopolitics of understanding human-microbial relations (chapter 12, Sarmiento); and finally, a very optimistic approach to the book's proposals as a paradigm. In general, the volume has offered two major contributions to interdisciplinary studies. First, authors have demonstrated the close relationship between the way human activities, with regard to biological fermentation, can influence, determine, create, or transform already existent rural and urban landscapes. Despite providing numerous examples of the book's central theme, the case studies faced the challenge of connecting these transformations to other aspects of human activities. [End Page 120] Second, this publication also provides some questions to the field of landscape and place studies, since the diversity of methodological approaches and subject definitions indicate the breadth that remains to be explored in human geography and ethnography. This aspect...