The Holobiont, Food Justice, and Gaia 2.0 A Post-Human(ist) Approach to Functional Medicine

Authors

Rosalynn A. Vega, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-11-2024

Abstract

Functional medicine is a personalized and holistic approach to treating chronic disease. In this article, I build upon posthumanist literature by examing how functional medicine practitioners are decentering and destabilizing what it means to be human. Functional medicine discourse on the holobiont, which considers the human as an assemblage of different microbial species, reframes the “humananimal” (see Nayar 2018) as the “humicrobe.” I engage Gaia 2.0 (see Lenton and Latour 2018) when analyzing the interconnectivity, interdependence, and mutualism of all life. My approach to interconnectivity interweaves both functional medicine descriptions of systems biology and Luhmann’s (2012) approach to system’s theory to endeavor into how autopoietic entities create a shared environment (Wolfe 2010). I emphasize functional medicine perspectives on food justice—particularly with regards to glyphosate, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and soil depletion—to highlight the unfolding of the Anthropocene and recenter human health.

Comments

Original published version available at https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/posthumanismstudies/article/view/4112

Recommended Citation

Vega, Rosalynn. "The Holobiont, Food Justice, and Gaia 2.0: A Post-Human (ist) Approach to Functional Medicine." interconnections: journal of posthumanism 3.1 (2024): 39-62.

Publication Title

interconnections: journal of posthumanism