Microbiopolitics and sanitary regulation: disagreements between science and local knowledge in the production of artisanal cheese in Minas Gerais

Abstract This article focuses on the relations between artisanal cheese production in Minas Gerais and the imposition of bio-safety policies and practices that have been structures in international markets and global science structures. It analyzes how sanitary regulation has contributed for an image of cheese production in the countryside, with its strong cultural roots, as “archaic” and “un-hygienic”, seen with suspicion by urban and “modern” societies. The implementation this regulation presents industrial food production as more efficient and safer, at the same time building suspicions that peasants are producing contaminated and unsafe food. These sanitary norms convert microscopic beings as a threat to society and constitute a microbiopolitics that is a source of power, morally connecting poverty and risk. This process has created strong barriers to legalizing peasant products, interfering on their life ways.

摘要 本研究聚焦巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州（Minas Gerais）手工奶酪生产与国际市场、全球科学体系所构建的生物安全政策及实践的强制推行之间的关联。本文分析了卫生监管（sanitary regulation）如何将拥有深厚文化根基的乡村奶酪生产塑造为“陈旧落后”且“不卫生”的形象，使其遭到城市“现代”社会的质疑。该项监管的实施将工业食品生产标榜为更高效、更安全的生产模式，与此同时催生了“农民生产的食品受污染且不安全”的猜疑。此类卫生规范将微生物（microscopic beings）视为社会的威胁，并构建了一种作为权力来源的微生物政治（microbiopolitics），在道德层面将贫困与风险绑定。这一过程为农民产品的合法化设置了重重障碍，干扰了其生活方式。