Thoughts from the lab: Biodiversity, what does it taste like?
I recently heard it claimed that eating might be one of our most intimate interactions with nature and it got me thinking on the matter. If so, to most of us it's probably so mundane that we don't give it much thought. Yet, those of us that have engaged in the fascinating process of growing a tomato plant or eaven just a simple salad must be astounded by the miracle of a tiny seed sprouting and becoming a plant. Perhaps our lack of consideration for these wonders is a sign of how disconnected our daily lives have become from the processes that make up our existence.
But is the act of eating and the food we consume natural? I guess it comes down to how we define what is natural and what is nature? Almost every vegetable, grain or livestock we use for food is the result of centuries of human molding of natural processes and cooking is a fundamentally a human activity, maybe the most human activity there is. Like all living things on the planet, humans shape their environment in their means of survival. Although our survival skills might be getting too good for our own good.
For millennia, influences from doctrines like Catholic theology have fostered a binary worldview separating humans from the natural world.
Genesis 1:26-31, God creates humans and gives them the Earth to care for. Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
If we move beyond this binary mindset, all human activity can be seen as an extension of nature itself, and in that perspective, all human activity including food cultivation, cooking and food preservation techniques become part of earth's symbiotic system. I don't believe that moving away from this binary thought doctrine should reduce our responsibility towards our environment, but indeed should deepen our responsibility towards the living organisms and systems we share this world with and see them as our equals.
Our relationship with the microscopic world is a great example of the symbiotic relationship we have with our environment and especially so when it comes to the cultivation and production of our food. Since eaven before the dawn of agriculture, long before we had any idea of their existence, humans have worked with bacterias, yeasts, and fungi. With these microbes we form a symbiotic partnership, transforming the flavors, aromas, and shelf lives of our foods, which has at least since we started cultivating land, been essential for our survival. Long before refrigeration, fermentation became vital for storing surplus crops, dairy, and fruits, with these natural processes evolving alongside us into a shared biological history. Our connection to these microbes isn’t just cultural, it's biological. The needs of our bodies have evolved alongside these microbes and depend on the diversity of microbes we ingest through fermented foods, supporting digestion, immunity, and overall health. Every time we eat fermented products, we reinforce this ancient, vital relationship.
However, since we started to gain an understanding of the microscopic world around us in the late 17th century and their role in fermentation and disease. Society has emphasized sterilization to eliminate pathogens, leading to a widespread aversion to microbes. Our fear of microbes is understandable considering the consequences of deadly diseases and pandemics. It's worth noting that the sanitary revolution has been one of the greatest contributions in saving and improving human lives in history. All that is very worth keeping in mind but the more we learn about the microscopic world around us, the more we begin to understand that, just like every other aspect of our environment, maintaining balance is vital.
The modern industrialisation of food production has resulted in that now, most industrial production processes rely on monocultures: single strains of microbes cultivated to control taste and ensure consistency. These monocultures tend to be weaker, more prone to outbreeding or failure and may lack the vital elements that natural, diverse communities provide. A well known example is the production of Camembert cheese, where monoculture strains have led to problems in maintaining flavor complexity and resilience.
Similarly, the yeasts used worldwide for brewing have long histories rooted in spontaneous, folk practices. Brewers have unknowingly been selectively breeding these yeasts for centuries long before they understood what yeast was or what it did.This was achieved through a process called backslopping. Some brewers noticed that if they took a bit of already fermented beer and poured it into a new batch, fermentation would proceed faster and yield better results. Naturally, they would choose the most flavorful or preferred beer to do this, inadvertently cultivating yeast with specific properties and characteristics they favored.
The yeast profile is a very important factor in giving each style of beer its unique flavor. To recreate regional or brewery specific beer styles, brewers need to have the right yeast strain. Today, commercial breweries can purchase yeast that has been harvested from specific breweries, propagated, and cultivated in laboratories, then sold in packaged form. Cultivated yeasts produced in factories often prefer the properties of the water from their original environments. Therefore, brewers often add minerals to their water to mimic the mineral profile of the water where the yeast originates, to ensure the optimal performance of each yeast strain.
As you can see from these examples, while isolated strains and cultures can aid in achieving consistency and reliable results, they also come with risks and challenges. Therefore, it is important to continue exploring the microbial world around us.
At Grugg & Makk, we are a brewing project dedicated to this approach of discovery, seeking out wild yeasts. Through this, we hope to promote environmental consciousness and highlight the unique microbial biodiversity each place holds, which contributes to diverse flavors and functionalities. For example, we utilize only the local Icelandic water profile and select cultures that perform well within it. Additionally, we prefer not to isolate our yeast; instead, we work with the processes of our environment, nurturing the yeast and bacteria we seek rather than manipulating them too much. With this approach we hope to create a tradition through products that are distinctly local and Icelandic.
Like the examples above show. This Industrialized approach to food production should perhaps be given a second thought. It threatens not only the complexity of our food but can also affect our own health and the health of our environment. Like mentioned before we have evolved with those microbes and we still have a limited understanding of this vast and complex world of microbes. Therefore the diverse microbes in traditional fermentation may be contributing nutrients and health benefits that may be missing in monoculture based products. Earth itself is a vast, interconnected system of microbes that sustain life and ecological balance and that of course applies to us and the foods that we eat as well.