The mounting social, ecological and animal welfare issues associated with animal agriculture have inspired research and development on novel protein technologies that promise pathways towards less harmful futures. Protein transitions advocates envision significant changes to food production, including the potential removal of millions of animals from food production systems. This future is not at all guaranteed and dependent upon the complex and uncertain processes through which alternatives emerge and come to negotiate place-based socio-technical regimes. In this paper we extend the multi-level perspective used within the sustainability transitions literature by integrating it with Bruno Latour’s concept of propositions as a way of analysing how places shape and are shaped by emerging niche industries, in this case the plant-based meat industry in Australia. Through interviews, workshops and desk-based analysis we focus on six key elements shaping the plant-based meat proposition: matters of concern, networks, practices, ontologies, recalcitrance, and omissions. The analysis reveals a plant-based meat infrastructure emerging in the shadow of the animal meat industry and a realm of innovative strategies oriented at boosting acceptance, such as hosting conferences, writing reports, and infiltrating animal meat aisles in supermarkets. [alt text trimmed for length]
![The mounting social, ecological and animal welfare issues associated with animal agriculture have inspired research and development on novel protein technologies that promise pathways towards less harmful futures. Protein transitions advocates envision significant changes to food production, including the potential removal of millions of animals from food production systems. This future is not at all guaranteed and dependent upon the complex and uncertain processes through which alternatives emerge and come to negotiate place-based socio-technical regimes. In this paper we extend the multi-level perspective used within the sustainability transitions literature by integrating it with Bruno Latour’s concept of propositions as a way of analysing how places shape and are shaped by emerging niche industries, in this case the plant-based meat industry in Australia. Through interviews, workshops and desk-based analysis we focus on six key elements shaping the plant-based meat proposition: matters of concern, networks, practices, ontologies, recalcitrance, and omissions. The analysis reveals a plant-based meat infrastructure emerging in the shadow of the animal meat industry and a realm of innovative strategies oriented at boosting acceptance, such as hosting conferences, writing reports, and infiltrating animal meat aisles in supermarkets. [alt text trimmed for length]](https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/132/772/822/280/650/original/86eee5ffbfe79160.png)