New Liberal Cabinet & Ag Minister, Newfoundland Sugar Tax Fail, Cricket Bankruptcy Bugs Sylvain, and guest Adam Grogan, President & COO, Maple Leaf Foods
In this insightful episode of The Food Professor podcast, hosts Michael LeBlanc and Sylvain Charlebois explore Canadian food politics and industry developments before sitting down with Adam Grogan, President and COO of Maple Leaf Foods, for a revealing conversation about the company's evolution and future.The episode begins with a discussion of Canada's new Liberal cabinet, focusing on Heath MacDonald from PEI as the new Agriculture Minister replacing Kody Blois. The hosts express mixed feelings about the appointment, noting MacDonald's farming background as a positive sign. They also analyze Chrystia Freeland's surprising role as Transportation Minister and its implications for agricultural logistics.Another highlight includes the new interprovincial trade deal between Manitoba and Ontario, which aims to reduce trade barriers. Charlebois emphasizes that such provincial initiatives will drive meaningful change, not federal promises, potentially opening new markets for small and medium-sized food producers currently limited by licensing requirements.The hosts then discuss American food inflation dropping from 3% to 2.8% despite tariffs, questioning why U.S. consumers haven't experienced price increases despite trade restrictions with Canada, China, and Mexico.The feature interview with Adam Grogan reveals Maple Leaf Foods' transformation beyond being merely a protein company. Grogan describes the organization as a "CPG powerhouse" with numerous brands, including Tender Flake lard, Sunrise, Larson, Burns, Mitchell's, Schneiders, Prime poultry, and Greenfield natural meats. He also discusses their $1 billion investment in processing facilities in London, Winnipeg, and Brampton to enhance global competitiveness.On plant-based proteins, Grogan shares a nuanced perspective, noting they are "the largest share of refrigerated plant protein in North America" with three dedicated brands and manufacturing plants. While acknowledging recent market challenges, he remains optimistic about the future, citing changing consumer preferences and Canada's position as the world's largest producer of pulses and legumes.Sustainability forms a cornerstone of their strategy, with Grogan stating, "Animal production is one of the largest emitters of carbon anywhere, and big food needs to do more." Maple Leaf Foods was the first Canadian company to align with science-based targets from the Paris Agreement and the first major food company to declare carbon neutrality in 2019.The episode concludes with discussions on Newfoundland's ineffective sugar tax, which has collected $30 million without changing consumption patterns, and the controversial government-funded Aspire Foods cricket farm in London that recently entered receivership despite $9 million in public funding.This episode offers valuable insights into Canadian food policy, sustainable protein production, and the evolution of one of Canada's largest food companies under progressive leadership.
The Food Professor #podcast is presented by Caddle. About UsDr. 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. Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
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