This volume, the first in a series on the lactic acid bacteria, offers a series of reviews by carefully selected experts drawn from several countries. Although there have been a number of excellent conferences on the lactic acid bacteria in recent years there is no publication which brings together the topics explored so thoroughly in the present text. Several topics will have particular interest to the agriculture industry, including spoilage in sugar productions, lactic acid bacteria in plant silage and conversation/upgrading of other materials for use in animal feeding, coffee, and cocoa fermentations and the role of sporolactobacilli. A review of factors governing the competitive behavior of lactic acid bacteria in mixed cultures ties together a number of the themes developed in other chapters.