The Justice of Fermentation

Food justice is a holistic and structural view of the food system that treats real, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food as a human right and addresses structural barriers to that right. Social movements for food justice are typically led by the communities most directly impacted, particularly low-income communities of color. Fermentation is the transformation of foods through partnership with microbial communities and involves food traditions that cultures have used to build community for generations. In this course, we will study the connections between the areas of food justice and fermentation through academic and applied learning. 

We will study specific topics that intersect with these two main areas of the program, such as the ecological and social impacts of food waste and the microbiome--the diverse microorganisms that make up the terrain of our bodies and our environment. How could fermentation help reduce food waste? How is food waste an environmental justice issue? How does pollution (including the chemicals used to grow and process our food) harm our microbiome and which groups are disproportionately impacted? How can traditional foodways (like fermented foods) heal our health? How can we ally with microbes to heal from persistent exposure to environmental toxins? What are the benefits of fermented foods and how can we prepare them? This course will include opportunities for hands-on learning through one in-person fermentation workshop as well as an at-home fermentation project.

Readings will include Farming While Black by Leah Penniman, Our Fermented Lives by food historian Julia Skinner, and Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. This course will be taught online with weekly asynchronous Canvas modules and 3 synchronous classes over the session (2 of these classes will be held on Zoom and 1 will be held in-person at the Sustainable Agriculture Lab on campus). Students will need a computer (with a microphone and speakers and preferably with a camera) and internet access.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

2 - Food Justice

2 -  Fermentation Project