Episode Details

In this episode, we discuss recent news stories in the food industry, starting with the recent layoffs at Eat Just, notwithstanding their success with their plant-based egg product and cultivated meat products, and the closure of Merit Foods in Winnipeg: is there more behind these closures to the plant-based protein industry, or just swings and roundabouts of risk, growth and capitalism?

We touch on the scene from a Montreal underpass where frozen carcasses of pigs strung up in protest and the immigrant child labour scandal at Hearthside Food Solutions that may have kids packing your Cheerios.

Our special guest is Vince Breton from DuBreton. He tells us about his Canadian specialty pork farming and processing company, which is getting worldwide attention for its organic pork products and the standards of treatment of the animals on his farms that he sells to consumers.

Lastly, we discuss the long-term changes in the food, grocery, and restaurant industries brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic

and the largest outbreak of avian influenza in U.S. history, which has driven up egg prices and raised concerns about a potential human pandemic. Finally, we discuss the influence of Tik Tok on food innovation and the new Chicken Big Mac at McDonald's, inspired by a fan recipe.

A few Dubreton cooks from Mike's popular YouTube cooking show, the Last Request BBQ show:

https://youtu.be/U6Y_JHlEZIo

https://youtu.be/Y4SZEH012J0

https://youtu.be/n-f_hz5jvy8

https://youtu.be/KD1P_AaDJ-U

About Us

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.

He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.

Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa.

About Michael

Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.   

Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. 

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