Paper short abstract:

Here we are fifty years later, and Effective Micro-organisms (EM) have crossed time and space (from Japan to Europe). Today, they are used by small communities of practice, notably in France. The question then arises as to what EM have retained of their religious roots...

Paper long abstract:

"A little science takes you away from God, but a lot brings you back", reportedly said Louis Pasteur, the 19th-century microbiologist. But do microbiology and religion make good menage, and even more so, do they make good household products?

Our reflection on the relationship between religion, science and technology is based on the case study of EM: a liquid product composed of various micro-organisms with a wide range of applications. A mouthwash, a phytosanitary product or even a household cleaner, this biotechnology was born in the 1980s from the imagination or rather the "epiphany" of Teruo Higa, a horticultural researcher (Xu 2006). The story of this scientist and his invention is intimately linked to a Japanese religious organization (shinshūkyō): the Church of World Messianity and its agricultural movement, Nature Farming (Staemmler 2011).

Nature Farming is one of the alternative movements that emerged alongside the industrialization of agriculture in the 20th century. Like Fukuoka's natural farming, Steiner's biodynamics and Rodale's organic agriculture, they share (among other characteristics) a critique of the vision of science deemed too "materialistic" (Kirschenmann 2010) and propose alternative conceptions of biology, driven by a syncretism of "philosophical, even esoteric speculations, empirical observations and scientific approaches" (Besson 2009).

This paper shows how these movements have given rise, through human acquaintances and shared practices, to the establishment of "bundles" (Schatzki 2016) where EM circulate today, taking advantage of these configurations to spread from continent to continent while adapting to the local scientific, religious, or spiritual context.