Episode Details

On this episode of The Food Professor podcast, my co-host Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and I unpack the sweet and sour of the latest news that’s shaping the Canadian food landscape. We also sit down with a very special guest, Michael Graydon, President of Food Health and Consumer Products of Canada to talk about the latest in sustainability and trends in part one of a two part interview.

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As drought hits the Canadian Prairies, Sylvain expresses his expansive concerns regarding North America’s water under the reality of the climate crisis. On the flip side, we talk about the latest promising agriculture innovations from biotech farming to McCain Foods’ recent commitment to regenerative agriculture practices.

From Christmas in July to chicken crises, Sylvain and I reflect on new alternatives to long-standing classics and the grim consequences of the supply chain issue faced by poultry processing plants. We cover the future of lab-grown meats and Sylvain explains just how this chicken processing plant issue happens.

Finally - is Newfoundland’s sugar tax as sweet as some advocates think? Sylvain talks about the successes and failures of sugar taxes around the world and methods for discouraging the consumption of sugary beverages.

As proud sponsors of The Retail Council of Canada’s 28th Grand Prix New Product Awards, we take a moment to celebrate the innovation that we saw and continue to see across the Grand Prix finalists and winners. We talk about highlights from this year’s gala and our predictions for next year’s line-up. Stay tuned for more interviews with finalists.

Michael Graydon

Michael is an accomplished CEO, with experience in both the public and private sectors. A proven brand builder with a history of generating compelling strategies generating significant top and bottom line growth. He has an extremely well defined ability to understand and serve consumer markets with improved and innovative products and services. Michael is a passionate leader, visionary and very creative in his approach to creating a very strong corporate culture and employee engagement.

Michael is the CEO of Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada (FHCP), formerly Food & Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC). Under his leadership, FCPC merged with Consumer Health Products of Canada (CHP) in September 2020. FHCP is the voice of Canada’s leading food, health, and consumer products manufacturers. Our industry employs more people than any other manufacturing sector in Canada, across businesses of all sizes that manufacture and distribute the safe, high-quality products at the heart of healthy homes, healthy communities, and a healthy Canada.

Under his leadership, Food & Consumer Products of Canada merged with Consumer Health Products of Canada in September 2020 to create Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada.

As President of Parq Holdings Michael was responsible for the oversight and strategic business development plans for the development of the new Parq Resort in Vancouver. Mr. Graydon joined PHLP in 2014 after six years at BCLC where he led that company to become a recognized leader in the gambling and entertainment industry worldwide and was inst