Food Security and Lactic Bacteria Use in Alaska and the Bering Strait Region

该项目考察了通过老化和发酵的方式加工和保存北极自给食品的传统方法。项目组将与白令海峡地区的常驻专家合作，开展人种学田野调查，并制定一个系统框架，以了解发酵在北极社会中的作用，以及影响发酵方法和过程的多种因素。这些因素包括建筑环境和自然地理的相互作用，家庭动态，以及世代对饮食和健康的看法。该项目的智力价值包括利用探索发酵的新方法作为当地生态知识的一个领域。该项目将推进北极食品制备实践、公共卫生、住房和社会/环境条件之间关系的研究。这项研究将促进北极学术领域以及工程和科学多个领域对基础设施的新兴兴趣。更广泛的影响包括学生培训和公众宣传，以及可能为建筑设计、建筑材料和社区规划的发展提供信息的见解，这些都与北极社会的文化需求有更大的凝聚力。

This project examines traditional methods of processing and preserving Arctic subsistence food products through the means of aging and fermentation. In collaboration with resident experts of the Bering Strait region, the project team will conduct ethnographic fieldwork and develop a systemic framework for understanding the role of fermentation in Arctic societies and the multiple factors that affect the methods and processes of fermentation. Among those factors are interactions of the built environment and physical geography, household dynamics, and generational perspectives on diet and health. The intellectual merit of the project involves utilizing the novel approach of exploring fermentation as a domain of local ecological knowledge. The project will advance research on the relationships between Arctic food preparation practices, public health, housing, and social/environmental conditions. This study will contribute to the momentum of the emergent interest in infrastructure within Arctic scholarship and across several fields of engineering and science. Broader impacts include student training and public outreach, and insights that may inform the development of architectural designs, construction materials, and community planning that function in greater cohesion with the cultural needs of the Arctic societies.