Who Knows What a Microbe is?

The Variable Texture of Microbial Identity in Agricultural Products, Regulations, and Fields

Abstract

Microbial products are becoming common alternatives for pesticides and fertilizers in light of the unsustainability of chemical products. What the microbes in these products are, though—that is, how they are enacted—varies across regulatory, research and development, and growing spaces, and that variation matters to how they are regulated. From document analyses, interviews, and ethnographic work with scientists, growers, and policy actors, we find that these microbes are epistemically uneven, sometimes with pinned-down identities, and sometimes with loosely woven textures with holes. Amid calls to tailor regulations specifically for these products, we suggest that regulations predicated on discrete identities and predictable and controllable functions will fail to account for all users’ experiences, and that regulation may need to learn to live with the lacy texture of microbes across contexts.