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Paper short abstract:

Examining the relational rationalities of work in breeding through inter-species human-microbe collaborations to protect against the deleterious effects of Listeria, we discuss the hygienist and commercial limits of "putting microbes to work", and thus the anthropological boundaries of work.

Paper long abstract:

In France, the systems for producing raw milk cheeses constitute an attempt to enlist microbes in the production of taste, heritage and market values. These systems, including Protected Designations of Origin, allow breeders to protect themselves from the deleterious effects of the conventional milk market which plunge a growing number of their peers into precariousness. However, they must face the threat of proliferation of pathogens in their work, including Listeria. How do they manage this microbial ambivalence in their breeding practices? This communication shows how these actors are no longer trying to fight against, but to work with microbes, via forms of inter-species collaboration, to manage the threat-proliferation of Listeria. It is based on surveys of breeders-producers from Saint-Nectaire farmers in France as part of the TANDEM research program (INRAe HOLOFLUX Metaprogram). Firstly, we show how these actors construct “microbial balances” in their breeding practices, a microbiopolitics where their “trust” in microbes plays out in the face of Listeria “attacks”, through: exogenous recruitment – powders commercial ferments – and/or endogenous – the “environment” of the farm – of microbes deemed beneficial; more or less strict controls – disinfection, etc. - of microbial populations during milking. Secondly, we will question the broader ecological disturbances, linked to the intensification of breeding practices, which induce a degradation of this microbiopolitics: the proliferation of mole rats in the meadows.

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Paper short abstract:

Based on an overview of the transformation of scientists’ interest in microbial economies of local cheeses in the last three decades in Turkey, this paper ethnographically investigates the entanglements of dairy technosciences of starter cultures with (microbio)politics of pasture-cheesemaking.

Paper long abstract:

In 2019, The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey launched the first dairy research and development lab of National Gene Bank for Food Starter Cultures in 2019. This lab aims to identify and reproduce the microorganisms of the traditional dairy products of the country in order to replace the imported starter cultures. In the last decade, microbial economies of the starter cultures have also been a major part of the scientific research agenda on local cheeses. Through ethnographic research with microbiologists and food engineers studying Kars kaşar cheeses in three universities, this paper analyzes the scientific investigations of the microorganisms that make cheese “local”. It provides an overview of the ways in which scientists’ shifting interests affected the microbial political economies of the local cheeses in the last three decades in Turkey: from identifying the autochthonous strains of microorganisms, to looking for pathogens, and, recently, for the bacteria that can make up starter cultures, which can ‘localize’ cheesemaking. Focusing on a particular case, a food engineer developing a starter culture for Kars kaşar cheese, the paper sheds light on how (the failure of) the economic valuation of microbes as starter cultures gave way to a new understanding of the collaboration between scientists, small cheesemakers, and microorganisms in making pastures present in the cheese – what I call “pasturing dairy infrastructures”. Hence the microbial economies of dairy sciences and crafts reveal the entanglements of the technosciences of starter cultures and (microbio)politics of local cheese.

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Paper short abstract:

Activated sludge is the standard approach used to treat wastewater across the world. Spanning empirical historical work from Berlin and London, this presentation re-conceives activated sludge as a more-than-human collaboration between humans and microbes for socio-ecological urban reproduction.

Paper long abstract:

On the hundredth anniversary of the activated sludge process, environmental historian Daniel Schneider posed a seemingly straightforward question: "Who invented activated sludge?" The activated sludge process is the standard approach used to treat wastewater across the world, in which communities of bacteria oxidise nutrients and decompose organic pollutants in industrial and urban effluent. Schneider's commentary gives historical context to the development of the activated sludge process, raises questions over whether it was 'invented' or 'discovered', and characterises the cynical legal battles over patent rights that followed its development. In light of recent theoretical developments across more-than-human geography and the wider "non-human turn" in the social sciences and humanities, however, it might be suggested that the microorganisms involved in activated sludge were also complicit in its invention. Hence, activated sludge is a more-than-human achievement of hybrid labour, in which humans and microorganisms achieve the (re)circulation of, primarily human, waste. As human societies undergo material reconfigurations, the composition of the effluent which these microorganisms come into contact with also changes, and a significant minority of metabolic processes occurring in contemporary activated sludge are novel, compared to the well characterised 'core' features of nitrification and phosphate removal: The microbial communities involved are continually experimenting and 'inventing' in response to the chemical diversification of late modernity. Based in theories of non-human labour and creativity, this presentation spans historical empirical work undertaken in the cities of London and Berlin to a discussion of contemporary experiments with sludge-as-resource for improving the urban carbon footprint.

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Paper short abstract:

In the early 20th-century, Selman A. Waksman, a prominent soil bacteriologist, harnessed soil microbes to create antibiotics. This paper reframes Waksman's work from an ecological perspective to shed light on the ecological and economic connections between microbes, humans, and the environment.

Paper long abstract:

For soil bacteriologists in early 20th-century America, microbes represented not pathogenic pests, but agricultural resources much like water, seeds and livestock. As such, microbes became organisms to be controlled, rationalized, and exploited. This paper delves into the groundbreaking contributions of Selman A. Waksman, a renowned soil bacteriologist, and his use of soil microbes to develop antibiotics. The work of Waksman not only transformed the landscape of medicine, but it also offers valuable insights into the historical evolution of microbial economies. The familiar story of Waksman's journey typically begins with his understanding of the untapped potential residing within the microbial communities of soil. As several scholars have noted, Waksman meticulously isolated and characterized numerous actinomycetes, unveiling their profound antibiotic capabilities. This work led to the development of Streptomycin, the tuberculosis-fighting treatment for which Waksman was awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. As early as 1925, however, Waksman called for a holistic, biological-complex approach to understanding the processes which take place in the soil itself while referring to the ecology of soil strata. This paper argues that it was this anti-reductionist thinking which allowed Waksman to exploit both the agricultural and the medicinal potentials of microbial soil systems. In his development of antibiotics, soil microbes were employed as drivers of new medical economies and socio-ecological reconfigurations alike. Using an ecological, historical lens, this paper reframes Waksman’s pioneering antibiotics work at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station to elucidate the ecological and economic interdependence between microbes, humans, and the environment.

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Paper short abstract:

Humans have for millennia relied on microorganisms and growing plants to mine natural resources. This paper examines historical examples of biomining and phytomining. As such, we hope to improve our understanding of such operations' potential contribution to sustainability in the extractive sector.

Paper long abstract:

Microbes have for long played important roles in human economic activities through their use in a variety of sectors. Some of these have often been overlooked, particularly in those sectors where human actors have for long been unaware of their more-than-human co-workers. The mining sector is an example.

As the mining sector is expanding into new frontiers of extraction (from outer space to the deep sea), another frontier is hidden within the low-grade ore that is normally left behind by mining companies. Among the methods to extract valuable resources from these low-grade ores, technologies using bacteria, other microorganisms and growing plants – processes known as biomining and phytomining — have recently gained prominence. Industries suspect that these technologies may represent a cleaner and environmentally sound extraction method while offering the possibility of recovering uneconomical ore bodies.

This contribution dives into the histories of biomining, examining cases from the past where extractive actors, knowingly or unknowingly, relied on biomining and phytomining to extract mineral resources. The paper is based upon interdisciplinary literature on both technologies, as well as archival sources on select operations, including companies’ and international organizations’ reports. By providing an overview of the sites and processes where biomining and phytomining have successfully or unsuccessfully been employed, we hope to present lessons regarding the long-term sustainability of such operations, and examine the socio-economic configuration of human and non-human actors in these processes of extraction.