This article describes the growing of microorganisms, in particular in relation to the making of fermented food.
Types of fermented foods
Many types of fermented foods can be made using microorganisms. Most popular are yoghurt, kefir and tofu, but many other foods can also be made, by using source materials (ie other beans or grains) and/or other microorganisms.
For an overview of the fermented foods that can be made, see wikipedia's article on fermented foods.
In general though, we will be focusing on foods that are vegetable-based and can be easily locally made (using indigenous crops to the region). For an overview of the indigenous crops, see Agriculture_manual_2_1. Dairy is to be discarded due to the fact that animals are heavy emitters of greenhouse gases. It is true that this could be reduced by using different animals (ie goats rather than cows, ...) an/or by changing their diets. However, even with these measures in place they are still heavy emitters and can never be greenhouse-gas neutral and/or completely part of a sustainable cycle. Furthermore, they also have other disadvantages (ie require care & vaccinations, fencing, shelter, cleaning of the shelter, ...)
Example system
Can be found at this website, also useful could be this site