Forgotten Stories of Yogurt: Cultivating Multispecies Wisdom

Abstract

Thanks to recent human microbiome research, we are gradually gaining a better understanding of the vital role that microbial diversity plays in health and well-being. However, as industrial food production standardizes fermented foods—making monoculture “probiotics”—we risk losing both microbial diversity and the cultural heritage of how to sustain it. This article takes yogurt as a case study to explore the ongoing disappearance of microbial biodiversity and its relationship to food practices. As an ancient fermentation product, yogurt has a rich biocultural heritage that is reflected in its diverse preparation methods—including, as this article describes, using ants and spring rain. I employed autoethnography as a form of qualitative inquiry to trace the stories of yogurt passed down through generations in my community from the Rhodope Mountains. Here multispecies and sensory approaches allowed me to delve into the intimate cultural and personal aspects of yogurt making. The stories I gathered from Bulgaria and Turkey reveal the richness of interspecies and sensorial connections involved in yogurt production. I argue that these practices cultivate diverse multispecies relationships and provide valuable insights into the broader loss of biocultural diversity. This article is thus an invitation to reflect on the ways in which the contemporary biodiversity crisis is related to the loss of local cultural knowledge, skills, and wisdom that have long nurtured diverse and generative multispecies relationships.