Sylvain Charlebois | |
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Born | |
Other names | The Food Professor |
Alma mater | Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal, Royal Military College [ citation needed ] |
Occupation | Professor of Management |
Employer(s) | Dalhousie University, Canada |
Spouse | Janèle Vézeau |
Sylvain Charlebois is a Canadian researcher and professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is a former dean of the university's Faculty of Management. [1]
Charlebois, who goes by the moniker "The Food Professor," is the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. Since December 2010, he has been the lead author of Canada's Food Price Report.
Charlebois was a professor at the University of Guelph from 2010 to 2016. [2] In 2016, he was named dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. [1] In 2018, Charlebois became the director of Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie, after resigning as dean following an investigation into complaints involving harassment and bullying. Following Charlebois's resignation, a university spokesman stated that the conclusions of the investigation would remain confidential but that "no further action" would be taken in relation to the investigation. [3] [4]
Charlebois writes a blog for Canadian Grocer magazine called "The Food Professor," [5] and is a co-host of the podcast titled "The Food Professor." [6]
Since 2010, Charlebois has published Canada's Food Price Report. [7] He has also co-authored reports related to the Canadian Wheat Board’s Daily Price Contract program, Canada's Food Guide, [8] edible cannabis legislation, [9] global food traceability systems, [10] [11] and public perception towards GMOs. [12]
In January 2023 Charlebois penned a commentary on the increase in theft from supermarkets, and how it raises costs for grocers and leads to higher grocery prices. [13] [14] [15] The piece, and a Twitter post, was met with criticism, and debate about the morality of food theft. [16] [17] Twitter users drew attention to Charlebois' salary from Dalhousie University, and his receipt of a $60,000 grant in 2018 from the Weston Foundation, which is funded by Weston Family companies that include Loblaws, one of Canada's largest grocery retailers. [18] [19] In response, Charlebois said the grant went to Dalhousie University and was used to pay a graduate student; and that people are upset with grocers since, with food inflation over 10 percent, "they're looking for a scapegoat." [13] [18]
A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a foodservice retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops
Metro Inc. is a Canadian food retailer operating in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The company is based in Montreal, Quebec, with head office at 11011 Boulevard Maurice-Duplessis. Metro is the third largest grocer in Canada, after Loblaw Companies Limited and Sobeys.
Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners, as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private label program that includes grocery and household items, clothing, baby products, pharmaceuticals, cellular phones, general merchandise and financial services. Loblaw is the largest Canadian food retailer, and its brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. It is controlled by George Weston Limited, a holding company controlled by the Weston family; Galen G. Weston is the chair of the Loblaw board of directors, as well as chair of the board of directors and CEO of Canada-based holding company George Weston.
Sobeys Inc. is a national supermarket chain in Canada with over 1,500 stores operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, plants, and animals (FPA) in Canada, thus enhancing the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy. The agency is responsible to the Minister of Health.
The Schulich School of Law is the law school of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1883 as Dalhousie Law School, it is the oldest university-based common law school in Canada. It adopted its current name in October 2009 after receiving a $20-million endowment from Canadian businessman and philanthropist Seymour Schulich.
WinCo Foods, Inc. is a privately held, majority employee-owned American supermarket chain based in Boise, Idaho, with retail stores in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. It was founded in 1967 as a no-frills warehouse-style store with low prices. The stores feature extensive bulk food sections.
The Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) is an Ottawa-based Government of Canada Crown Corporation that provides a framework for managing Canada's dairy industry.
FreshCo Ltd. is a Canadian chain of discount supermarkets owned by Sobeys. It was launched in March 2010. As of September 2023, there were 100 FreshCo stores.
Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago metropolitan area and in Southern California. Kroger operates their stores as Foods Co. in northern and central California, including Bakersfield and the Central Coast, because they do not have the rights to the Food 4 Less name in those areas. Other states, such as Nevada, formerly contained Kroger-owned Food 4 Less stores.
Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. As with other developed nations, the proportion of the population agriculture employed and agricultural GDP as a percentage of the national GDP fell dramatically over the 20th century, but it remains an important element of the Canadian economy. A wide range of agriculture is practised in Canada, from sprawling wheat fields of the prairies to summer produce of the Okanagan valley. In the federal government, overview of Canadian agriculture is the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Dairy farming is one of the largest agricultural sectors in Canada. Dairy has a significant presence in all of the provinces and is one of the top two agricultural commodities in seven out of ten provinces.
Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, is an American delivery company based in San Francisco that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada accessible via a website and mobile app. It allows customers to order groceries from participating retailers with the shopping being done by a personal shopper. The company also provides alcohol delivery in states and provinces where it is allowed. It has partnerships with 1,500 retail banners comprising 85,000 stores. Since its founding, Instacart Marketplace has powered more than $100 billion of GTV and over 900 million orders with approximately 20 billion items ordered.
Animal welfare and rights in Canada is about the laws concerning and treatment of nonhuman animals in Canada. Canada has been considered to have weak animal welfare protections by the organization World Animal Protection. The vast majority of Canadians are for further animal protections, according to a poll conducted on behalf of Mercy for Animals.
Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food distribution. Fluctuation in food prices is determined by a number of compounding factors. Geopolitical events, global demand, exchange rates, government policy, diseases and crop yield, energy costs, availability of natural resources for agriculture, food speculation, changes in the use of soil and weather events directly affect food prices. To a certain extent, adverse price trends can be counteracted by food politics.
The bread price-fixing scandalin Canada refers to a group of competing bread producers, retailers and supermarket chains reached a secret agreement among themselves to artificially inflate the price of bread at the wholesale and retail levels from late 2001 to 2015. The Competition Bureau of Canada alleged, in court documents released 31 January 2018, that seven Canadian bread companies committed indictable offences in what journalist Michael Enright later termed "the great Canadian bread price-fixing scandal" of 2018. Penalties can range from $25 million to a prison term of 14 years.
Published by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph since 2010, every December, Canada's Food Price Report provides a forecast of Canadian food prices and trends for the coming year in Canada. In July 2020, it was announced that the University of Saskatchewan and University of British Columbia were joining the group.
Buttergate was a 2021 event in which Canadian butter became more difficult to spread due to increased hardness. Canadian consumers expressed disappointment that butter stopped becoming soft at room temperature. Food experts attributed the hardness to an increased use in palm oil in dairy cattle diet, prompting the Dairy Farmers of Canada to recommend to farmers to cease adding palm oil to cow's diets.