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Re: [compost_tea] Fermentation
Fermentation is a word which has had different meanings over time.
To ferment something used to mean the same as to grow, basically. A ferment was a culture of something.
With brewing of alcoholic beverages, fermentation gained a connotation of being involved with the production of alcoholic beverages. And therefore, restricted to anaerobic conditions.
Confusing? Especially as some people who are un-aware of the change in usage have been using fermentation in the earlier use of the word, which is just "to grow".
I prefer to use terminology that is more precise, and avoid the use of a term compromised with different traditions.
So, an aerobic fermentation is a nonsensical combination in some people's lexicon. Aerobic alcohol production? Not likely. Alcohol production is an anaerobic process. But only if you use fermentation in the sense of alcohol production.
So, can we please leave fermentation to the beer industry?
Aerobic metabolism, requiring oxygen as the last electron acceptor in the cytochrome system. Or anaerobic metabolism where something other than a molecule of oxygen is used as the final electron acceptor in energy production.
There's also photosynthesis, which produces oxygen as a waste product.
There are aerobic organisms, who always use aerobic metabolism.
There are facultative anaerobic organisms, who can switch from aerobic metabolism, to anaerobic metabolism. The oxygen concentration where they convert from one to the other varies.
There are anaerobic organisms, who always use anaerobic pathways.
OK?
Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand
"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out." -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
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