New Books Network Digestive Belonging, Trans-Species Sensing & Care in America’s Dairyland
Feb 13, 2026
Katy Overstreet, assistant professor and multispecies ethnographer, studies dairy worlds, farm animal care, and microbial relations. She explores microbes, cows, and raw milk consumption. Short takes cover digestive belonging, pasteurization politics, trans-species sensing, sensory attunement like 'tasting like a cow', and tensions between care, welfare science, and industrial pressures.
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Raw Milk Marks Farm Insiders
- Katy recounts a farm moment where the host warned her family about zoonoses but exempted neighbors who drank raw milk.
- That exchange sparked her inquiry into how raw milk marks insiders and shapes digestive belonging.
Pasteurization As A Cultural Divider
- Pasteurization functions as a cultural divider between industrial and 'natural' food more than a major technical change.
- Raw milk becomes a fetishized symbol of rural belonging despite being a relatively minor processing step.
Microbes Co-Produce Bodies And Belonging
- Microbes in raw milk can move beyond the gut and actively reshape human biology through ongoing exposure.
- Digestive belonging names how microbes and farm practices co-produce bodies and social belonging.
