Blog
2024.07.03

[Report]11th Academic Frontier Lecture Series 2024

The Philosophy of Decomposition: A Deterritorializing Study on “Eating Planet”

On June 28th, 2024, Dr. Tatsushi Fujihara, Associate Professor at Kyoto University, delivered a lecture titled “The Philosophy of Decomposition: A Deterritorializing Study on ‘Eating Planet.’”

Dr. Fujihara specializes in history but has studied the history of agriculture and food by integrating knowledge from the natural and social sciences. “The Philosophy of Decomposition” arises from such academic efforts.

In this age of mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal, the earth is now overflowing with things that do not decompose, such as plastics, radioactive materials, and pesticides produced by human activities. This has resulted in the destruction of the soil, oceans, and other environments that play an important role in decomposition in the natural world. Decomposition, which usually takes place in places we cannot see, is the ecological term for the life-sustaining processes that are essential to the cycles of the natural world. Dr. Fujihara points out that humans, as living organisms, need to rethink this cycle once again.

Ecology classifies the natural world into producers, consumers, and decomposers, and humans have been positioned as consumers, but according to Dr. Fujihara, humans are also decomposers. This is not only because humans coexist with more than 100 trillion microorganisms in the gut, but also because decomposition is a phenomenon widely associated with recycling, art, and other human activities.

By focusing on “decomposition,” which has been overlooked until now, we may be able to reposition humans within the larger cycles of the ecosystem and recompose our relationship with food. After discussing the philosophy of decomposition through ecology, sociology, and art, Dr. Fujihara concluded his presentation by introducing “Give Me Vegetable,” a food project that connects people with each other.

Report by SHIRAO Asami (EAA Research Assistant)