In the book From Farming to Biotechnology, mentioned in the Introduction, we identified genetic engineering techniques as the beginning of a process of radical innovation in the agri-food system, in which agriculture would be replaced for the first time by the industrial fermentation bioreactor, whose most advanced references were single-cell proteins, amino acids, and mycoproteins to replace meat and fish protein. This would imply an implosion of the great agricultural commodity chains, all turned into simple biomass in multipurpose refineries, capable of supplying, variously, food, feedstock, and energy (Goodman et al, 1987). Sugar cane was the first chain to suffer its effects with the development of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) from corn hydrolysis, and the development of synthetic sweeteners. Attracted by these possibilities, companies outside the agri-food sector – Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), and British Petroleum (BP) – invested to develop these markets, as also the leading food company of the country whose products most depend on fermentation, Japan's Kyowa Hakko Kogyo. New trading companies arose embracing biotechnologies in a bid to restructure commodity chains – Ferruzzi in Italy being the boldest. Silicon Valley start-ups emerged promoting technologies to revolutionize traditional chains, with Calgene leading the way, promising to eliminate the problems of perishability in the fresh produce chain (Wilkinson, 1993).

Some of these advances have become permanent, particularly in the production and use of genetically modified enzymes and yeasts. On the other hand, the crisis that led to a quadrupling of oil prices in the 1970s and a campaign against the health implications of single-cell proteins based on oil and natural gas undermined the prospects for competitive alternatives in the protein chain. More important, however, was the emergence of social movements in both agriculture and food consumption that opposed the use of genetic engineering in the agri-food system, especially in the European Union, where civil society has strong representation. This in turn reflected the fundamental transformations in the agri-food system itself, in which the economic power of the retail sector was consolidating and imposing itself in relation to the food industry and the trading companies based on its closer articulation with demand. In 1999, in the face of negative publicity, the British supermarkets Sainsbury's and Safeway committed themselves not to sell genetic engineering products (Williamson, 2002).