Sylvain Says "Howdy" To Texas A&M, Canadian Food Sentiment Index No. 2, And From Farm To Global Table: Gilles Froment, International Dairy Federation President And Lactalis Canada SVP The Food Professor podcast

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Sylvain says "Howdy" to Texas A&M, Canadian Food Sentiment Index No. 2, and from Farm to Global Table: Gilles Froment, International Dairy Federation President and Lactalis Canada SVP

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In Season 5, Episode 35 of The Food Professor podcast, co-hosts Michael LeBlanc and Sylvain Charlebois deliver an information-packed episode with significant developments in both personal and industry news.

Sylvain Charlebois opens with a major announcement about joining Texas A&M University on August 1st to lead their #1-ranked Masters in Agribusiness program while maintaining his position at Dalhousie University. Speaking from Saskatoon, Sylvain shares insights about his keynote on AI in the food business and briefly touches on the political climate following recent Canadian election results.

The second Canadian Food Sentiment Index reveals continued concerns about food inflation, with many consumers pessimistically expecting double-digit inflation rates. The report highlights growing consumer trust in independent grocers, likely driven by the strengthening Buy Local movement. Sylvain notes that grocery retailers like Loblaw are becoming more transparent about strategic challenges they face.

The featured interview showcases an in-depth in-person conversation live at SIAL Canada between Sylvain and Gilles Froment, Senior Vice President of Government Relations at Lactalis and President of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), marking the podcast's first solo interview by Sylvain in five years.

Froment, only the third Canadian to head the IDF in its 120-year history, explains the organization's role in establishing global dairy standards through its network of 1,200 experts worldwide. The discussion covers critical industry topics including the challenges of plant-based alternatives using dairy terminology, global dairy demand outpacing supply, and the projection of a significant global milk shortage by 2030—potentially equivalent to three times Canada's annual production.

Both experts agree this shortage represents a missed opportunity for Canada due to supply management limitations, despite the country's excellent reputation for dairy quality and safety standards. The conversation also explores sustainability challenges facing the dairy industry, with Froment detailing his four-pillar approach: economic sustainability, social impact, environmental responsibility, and nutritional value.

Climate change initiatives discussed include carbon sequestration research, genetic selection for lower methane-emitting cows, and the controversy surrounding feed additives. Froment emphasizes the need for carbon measurement at farm level and incentive-based approaches rather than punitive taxation.

The episode concludes with Michael and Sylvain discussing Weight Watchers' bankruptcy filing—attributed to the rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs—and Tim Hortons' new partnership with Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, debating whether this celebrity endorsement will effectively attract their target demographic of younger women to the coffee chain..

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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.

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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