Sylvain Charlebois
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a regular oped contributor for Montreal's La Presse, Toronto's The Globe and Mail, and also writes a blog for the Canadian Grocer magazine called "The Food Professor". He is also known as the lead author of Canada's Food Price Report, an annual forecast on food prices and trends, released every December since 2010.. Since 2020, he is also co-host of the podcast called "The Food Professor".
Charlebois is a Canadian researcher in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. He is also Dalhousie's former Dean of the Faculty of Management and holds a cross-appointment as professor at Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture. In 2018, he left his decanal position to launch a new Agri-food Analytics Lab, at Dalhousie University.
Charlebois was a Professor in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, from 2010 to 2016. In 2011, he co-founded the University of Guelph's Food Institute. From 2004 to 2010, he was a member of the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Regina in Regina, Canada. He has served as acting dean, associate dean for the College of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. He also served as the Director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, also affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan. As Director, in 2009, he became one of the youngest university Deans in Canada.
Food Safety and Traceability World Rankings (2006–2016)
Charlebois has authored nearly 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals, professional publications, conference proceedings in Food Science and Management. He is known for being the lead author of many reports which compare global food safety and traceability systems. In 2011, Charlebois chaired the first International Workshop on food safety performance metrics and risk intelligence in Helsinki, Finland, during which 21 countries were represented. He is the project lead for the World Ranking Food Safety Performance Report.Canada's Food Price Report (2011–2020)
Now published by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph, Charlebois is the lead author of Canada's Food Price Report since its inception. Both predictive modelling through machine learning and econometrics are used to support the annual forecast. The report was published by the University of Guelph only from 2011 to 2016. The report's market reach is estimated at over 280 million people in 50 countries annually. In 2015, the project was recognized as one of the University of Guelph's most significant research accomplishments over the past 50 years. It was announced in July 2020 that both the University of Saskatchewan and the University of British Columbia are joining the project, starting with the 2021 edition.Research
He is the author of five books on global food systems, one in French, an essay on food security and safety. His most recent academic book is entitled "Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking", published by Wiley-Blackwell. It was announced in July 2019 that Charlebois is writing a 6th book, on poutine, due to be released in 2020. According to Google Scholar, he is one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability. Since 2020, he is an Editor of Trends in Food Science and Technology, one of the world's top food science academic journals.His current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution and safety, and has published many articles in several top academic journals food science and management. Dr. Charlebois is an associate researcher with many research centers and think tanks and has worked with the C. D. Howe Institute and the Conference Board of Canada. His research has been featured in a number of publications, including The Lancet, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Foreign Policy, the South China Morning Post, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Maclean's and La Presse, as well as on NBC, ABC, Fox News, BBC, the Business News Network, CBC Radio and CBC Television, Global, CTV, TVOntario and TVA. He has conducted media interviews in several countries including the United States, many European countries, Russia, Philippines, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and India.
Other notable studies
In 2008, Charlebois co-authored a C. D. Howe Institute study which benchmarked the performance of the Canadian Wheat Board’s Daily Price Contract program. The study suggested that the program provided poor financial returns for farmers. The DPC program was eventually cancelled, months after the release of the study.In 2011, Charlebois chaired the first international workshop on food safety performance metrics, with 21 countries involved. Some countries objected to the idea that countries could be compared based on food safety policies, risk management and risk communication practices. Since that seminal workshop which was held in Helsinki, Finland, sharing and comparing practices in food safety amongst nations are more widely accepted. He argues that the structure of food safety governance favours the advancement of international partnerships and collaboration.
in 2018
In 2017, Charlebois' team looked at the Cannabis in Canada legislation and the issue of edibles. Initially, edibles were not included in Bill C-45. The study released in September 2017 argued that consumers would be confused over what to do with cannabis-infused food products. It also argued that results should compel the federal government to introduce a framework around the consumption of edibles when legalization proceeds with the Cannabis Act. Weeks after the study was released, Bill C-45 was amended to include edibles. In 2019, a second study released by Charlebois' team made a case for how the black market for cannabis-infused food products in the country could expand if Canada's regulatory framework is too strict.
In 2019, Charlebois' team released a cost analysis on Canada's Food Guide, a first in Canada. The study indicated that the 2019 version made Canadian families more food secure than the 2007 version. But the report also warned that, within a few years, demand for plant-based proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables could increase to the point where the price difference between guides would be eliminated.
Charlebois is also a well-known critic of Supply management, the country's quota system for poultry, eggs and dairy. He has studied the economic role of marketing boards in Canada for years. For more than two decades, he has advocated for major reforms to the system. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis, he claimed dumping raw milk in Canada should be illegal and that milk should be considered a public good, unlike in other countries. He is also known for his controversial position on GMOs. While advocating for more transparency by way of strict labeling rules for consumers, he believes in the safety of food products which include genetically engineered ingredients.
Over the years, Charlebois has coined a few expressions to explain food trends. "Protein wars" is one which points to tensions between existing animal protein sources and plant-based alternatives for consumers. Protein wars are essentially caused by the rise of the conscious omnivore, the flexitarian. The term "food category appropriation" was also coined by Charlebois, which is when a company will use a well-known food descriptor, like cheese, meat, and apply it to an alternative product using different ingredients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he spoke about how the food supply chain is becoming more "democratized", and that the pandemic forced Canada to step up levels of e-commerce.. More than ever, farmers, processors, could avoid Canadian grocers' oligopolistic powers and sell directly to consumers who don't want, or can't visit grocery stores.
Teaching philosophy
Charlebois has conducted live case studies for years now. In his approach, Charlebois attempts to incorporate realism and the concept of Co-opetition in the classroom. He believes that the simultaneity of competition and cooperation in a live case study setting makes for a profoundly powerful learning experience for students. Past live case studies involved companies like Sobeys, Monsanto, PepsiCo, Loblaw Companies, Gencor and Campbell Soup Company.He is a co-author of Real People, Real Decisions published by Pearson Education Canada.
Appointments
Dr. Charlebois is a member of the National Scientific Committee since 2011, and was member of the National Expert Board of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Since 2013, he also a member of the Global Food Traceability Center's Advisory Council based in Washington, D.C.. He sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies . He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces, in the United States, Brazil, Italy, France, Belgium, China, Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, at the University of Helsinki in Finland, at NorthWestern A&F University in China, at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, and at the University of Sydney in Australia.Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute based in Luxembourg.
Awards
Charlebois is a two-time winner of the prestigious International Emerald Lit Award in research. He has done a TEDx talk on global trades and emerging agricultural economies. He is also a three-time "Teacher of the Year" award winner while in Saskatchewan, in 2006, 2007 and 2009. In 2006, MacLean's Magazine recognized him as one of the best university professors in the country. In 2015, he also won the Bill Braithwaite Distinguished Professorial Award as a graduate Faculty at the University of Guelph. In 2019, he won the Faculty of Management's Researcher of the Year Award, at Dalhousie University. With that award, Charlebois has won three research awards at three different universities.Charlebois holds degrees from the Royal Military College of Canada, the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke.