Recent years have seen the convergence of industries that focus on higher protein foods, such as meat processing firms expanding into plant-based substitutes and/or cellular meat production, and fisheries firms expanding into aquaculture. A driving force behind these changes is dominant firms seeking to increase their power relative to close competitors, including by extending beyond boundaries that pose constraints to growth. The broad banner of “protein” offers a promising space to achieve this goal, despite its nutritionally reductionist focus on a single macronutrient. Protein firm strategies to increase their dominance are likely to further diminish equity in food systems by exacerbating power asymmetries. In addition, the resilience of food systems has the potential to be weakened as these strategies tend to reduce organizational diversity, as well as the genetic diversity of livestock and crops. To better understand these changes, we visually characterize firms that are most dominant in higher protein food industries globally and their recent strategic moves. We discuss the likelihood for these trends to further jeopardize food system resilience and equity, and we make recommendations for avoiding these impacts.

Outras geografias que não a da fome são possíveis para o Brasil. Esta é a conclusão que os mais de 30 pesquisadores e ativistas sociais chegaram ao participarem do seminário “Geografia da Fome – 75 anos depois: novos e velhos dilemas”, organizado pela Cátedra Josué de Castro de Sistemas Alimentares Saudáveis e Sustentáveis da Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo, com o apoio de um conjunto de instituições. Faz-se necessário discutir a obra de Josué de Castro por ser um clássico, pelos atuais números da fome e pela disputa de narrativas em torno do fenômeno da fome que se apresenta por meio de distintos projetos político-ideológicos. Foram quatro grandes consensos que o evento alcançou: a importância do papel do Estado para reverter a situação de fome; as desigualdades como causa e efeito de sistemas alimentares não sustentáveis e da fome; a expansão da produção e a modernização da agricultura se deu mantendo e aprofundando a concentração fundiária, com perda de biodiversidade e sem compromisso com a produção de comida para o povo; além de a fome ser considerada como um projeto político-ideológico em um Brasil de abundâncias. É necessário estimular espaços para mobilizar a academia, gestores públicos, organizações da sociedade civil, movimentos sociais e ativistas comprometidos com uma agenda transformadora em torno da fome e de seus atuais e antigos dilemas.

In the present study, we have obtained a temperature-sensitive replication mutant in the Escherichia (E.) coli-lactic acid bacterium (LAB) shuttle vector pLES003-b carrying erythromycin-resistance gene by errorprone PCR technique. Among 858 clones obtained in the construction of the random mutation libraries of pLES003-b in the ori and repA regions, three clones could grow normally at 28 °C but not at 42 °C. One of the clones was designated as pLES003-b TS1. The sequencing analysis of pLES003-b TS1 revealed that the plasmid has four substitution mutations (376G > A, 435A > T, 914C > A, and 1996T > A) and one insertional mutation (1806_1807insA). Among those mutations, substitution mutation 914C > A, which leads to a CGCto-AGC codon change at position 44 of the RepA protein (arginine-to-serine substitution mutation: R44S in RepA), was predicted to be a cause of temperature sensitivity. Therefore, the C-to-A substitution was introduced into the repA gene in pLES003-b using a site-directed mutagenesis method, and the resultant plasmid was electroporated into a Lactobacillus (L.) plantarum cell. The resultant transformant cannot grow at 42 °C in the presence of erythromycin, which is used as a selective marker, indicating that the R44S point mutation in the RepA protein may be crucial for temperature sensitivity. Furthermore, we have developed a new plasmid as an efficient genetic engineering tool for random insertional mutagenesis in LABs using a combination of transposon Tn10 and the temperature-sensitive replication system in pLES003-b. The resultant plasmid vector, which was designated pLES-Tn10-TS1, would be useful for genetic analysis of the functional molecule in lactic acid bacterial strains.

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