The Food Professor

WfE stands for Whisky for Everyone. Unlike most young distilleries, it makes no gin or vodka to pay the bills while its own spirit ages. Instead, the team buys aged Canadian whisky in bulk, re-ages and blends it, then finishes it in ice cider casks to create an approachable "onboarding" whisky. They also cover SAQ listings, rising bottle and cask costs, ready-to-serve cocktails, and the liquor-board rules that keep craft distillers from shipping across provincial lines.
In the news, Sylvain sizes up the Parti Québécois's sweeping election win, its pledge to source 75% of public-institution food from Quebec, and his shortlist for agriculture minister. New Statistics Canada data show agri-food exports to the U.S. up 5.8% and America's share of our imports edging higher. Is the "elbows up" boycott showing up anywhere? Michael asks whether restaurant diners can even choose.
Plus: Nortera steps back from Green Giant, JBS closes Wild Fork, the Westons move on Boots, the U.S. molasses ban and a Goodles taste test.
Topics include:
Quebec craft whisky
Interprovincial trade barriers
Quebec election and agriculture
Canada–U.S. agri-food trade
Surveillance pricing

About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. 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 and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

It's an in-depth conversation with Jason Buechel, CEO of Whole Foods Market and Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores, a pick-up of an interview from my Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis from last fall. Jason shares Amazon’s rapidly expanding grocery ambitions. Already surpassing $100 billion in gross sales, Amazon is leaning into grocery as a strategic category driven by frequency, loyalty, Prime stickiness, and the potential to unite all household purchasing into a seamless digital and physical ecosystem.
Buechel explains how Amazon is transforming grocery shopping—a category in which consumers currently visit four to five retailers a month—into a single, unified experience. With more than 1,000 same-day grocery delivery locations today scaling to 2,300 cities, store-level innovations such as Whole Foods Daily Shop formats, and the integration of perishables directly into Amazon baskets alongside electronics or apparel, the company is erasing long-standing channel barriers. He also outlines the “one grocery” operational vision: unified supply chains, technology stacks, and customer journeys across banners, while preserving the brand trust and standards that Whole Foods customers demand.
First, the news. Canpotex is spending $500 million to expand at the Port of Vancouver, BHP's Jansen mine is set to break the Saskatchewan potash oligopoly, and Belarusian potash is headed for New Orleans. Sylvain explains why that is good news for farmers' fertilizer bills and bad news for provincial royalties.
New research on Health Canada's magnifying-glass symbol found that more than half of Canadians who noticed the label switched products. Reformulation, though, looks more like a defensive move than a pricing opportunity.
On trade, the U.S. ban on Canadian consumer-ready products is now in force, hitting Moosehead, whey, cheese and Crosby's molasses. Michael and Sylvain ask whether the provincial boycotts of American wine and spirits actually hurt U.S. exporters, and who picked up the shelf space and tumble some numbers.
Also: Canada's $34-billion coffee economy, cannabis as an export, and the Driscoll's pesticide allegations unpacked.
Topics include:
Amazon Grocery and Whole Foods Market strategy
Potash competition and fertilizer prices
Front-of-package nutrition labelling
U.S. ban on Canadian food and alcohol
Coffee Association of Canada economic impact
Driscoll's and CFIA compliance
Celebrate & Support all things Canadian and pick up a six-pack of Moosehead next time you are shopping for a delicious cold beverage!

About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. 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 and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

On Season Seven, Episode Five of The Food Professor Podcast, Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois sit down with Annemarie Swijtink, President & CEO of McDonald's Canada, for her very first Canadian podcast interview. Annemarie started as a 15-year-old crew member in the Netherlands, studied economics in Rotterdam, joined McDonald's as a marketing intern and went on to lead the Dutch business before taking the top job in Canada a year ago, where she supports franchisees and restaurant teams across 1,500 restaurants.
What surprised her most? How Canadian McDonald's Canada really is. Annemarie explains that 85% of the company's supply chain is sourced domestically, including beef, chicken, eggs, potatoes and milk, and shares how vertical farming partnerships now deliver 100% Ontario and BC tomatoes year-round. She makes a clear commitment to keep buying Canadian beef, a promise that dates back to the 2003 BSE crisis, and describes investments in 4-H, young cattle producers and farmer mental health.
The conversation also covers food inflation and affordability, including the $5 meal and $1 coffee with prices frozen for a year, the rise of beverages and chicken, protein-forward menus in the GLP-1 era, the "three-legged stool" of franchisees, suppliers and corporate, a "high tech, high touch" approach to restaurant labour and technology, new formats like Winnipeg's first drive-thru-only restaurant, and what McDonald's will look like in five years. Spoiler: the Big Mac stays on the menu. Plus, Sylvain tests just how Canadian she's become by asking about her favourite hockey team.
But first, we start with the food and agriculture news of the week. Sylvain unpacks potash politics after President Trump floated replacing Canadian potash with supply from Belarus, explaining Canpotex, the global potash cartels and why Canada's geography remains a competitive advantage. We look at Canada–India trade talks toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the opportunities for pulses, grains and pork, then ask whether a Super El Niño will push food prices higher, delay the Prairie harvest or disrupt shipping. Using Grocery Pulse data, we break down the month's biggest grocery price increases, led by strawberries, chicken breast and flour, plus why beef volumes are down and what supply management has to do with chicken prices.
We also discuss a major Wendy's franchisee with 314 U.S. restaurants seeking creditor protection, Maple Leaf Foods consolidating U.S. plants, the end of the long Metro strike, a possible Safeway strike in Alberta before Thanksgiving, Sobeys' Competition Bureau agreement on property controls, Nestlé's seized assets in Russia, caviar's direct-to-consumer price shake-up, and Barilla's acquisition of high-protein mac and cheese brand Goodles.

About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. 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 and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

Is artificial intelligence about to transform agriculture more than any other industry? On Season Seven, Episode Four of The Food Professor podcast, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and Michael LeBlanc sit down with Aidan Connolly, President of AgriTech Capital and past president of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA), one of the world's leading voices on agtech and the future of farming.
Aidan helped Alltech grow from roughly $25 million to $2.5 billion in revenue and now connects startups, investors and agri-food companies to help innovation scale. He separates agtech hype from real value, explaining why vertical farms, cell-cultured meat and insect farming struggled, and why AI's potential in agriculture may exceed any other sector if the industry can solve its farm data problem. He shares his DRIVE framework for AI adoption and weighs in on data ownership, cooling agtech venture capital, mega-farms and food traceability. Then he ranks countries on an S-to-D agtech tier list. Find out why Canada earns a B, Israel an A, and what Canada can learn from the Netherlands and New Zealand. You'll also hear Aidan's magic-wand fix for turning Canada into an agri-food superpower.
In the news, Michael and Sylvain unpack a good week for Canadian agri-food policy. Canada's investment summit focused on energy and infrastructure. Even so, Farm Credit Canada's $1 billion project financing initiative, $150 million in agri-food capital and a new productivity tax break for small and medium-sized businesses could help farmers and food processors invest in automation and R&D. Sylvain argues a more productive, competitive food sector is Canada's best answer to U.S. tariffs.
The hosts also weigh EU associate membership, the CETA payoff for Canadian cereal exports to Europe, and why Canada should say "yes to all" trading partners. Agriculture makes up just 1.9% of Canada's growing trade with China, while Chinese tariffs on Canadian peas add uncertainty.
On grocery prices, food inflation has eased to 2.8%, but prices are up 28.9% since September 2021. Sylvain explains why food price volatility is the real enemy, with Canada logging 17 month-to-month drops in five years, the most in the G7. They also cover beef imports up 13%, with Australia and Brazil gaining, easing cattle prices, and why high diesel costs could add 0.4 percentage points to food inflation this winter.
Plus: the return of Yves Veggie Cuisine under Maple Leaf Foods, crisis communication lessons from the Taylor Farms outbreak and the Silk recall, why the CFIA should declare when a recall is over, and a fun Dairy Farmers of Canada pop-up café on Toronto's Queen Street.
Like, subscribe and share The Food Professor for weekly insights on food prices, agtech, trade and Canadian agriculture, and watch the full video episode now on YouTube.

About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. 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 and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

Everything you thought you knew about ghee is wrong. In this episode of The Food Professor podcast, Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois sit down with Vreshin "Vresh" Nagarajan, Founder and Chief Ghee Officer of Vresh Foods, makers of OG GHEE, recorded live on the show floor at the SIAL Food Innovation Show in Montreal.
Vresh makes a compelling and slightly incendiary case: roughly 90% of the $100 million of ghee sold in Canada every year isn't actually ghee. It's anhydrous milk fat, or butter oil, an industrially processed dairy ingredient usually made offshore, shipped in shelf-stable, repackaged here and sold as "pure desi ghee." Real ghee is cultured butter cooked until the water evaporates and the lactose and casein caramelize, a distinction the Codex recognizes and one you can smell the moment the jar opens.
In four years Vresh has gone from a South Asian meal-kit side hustle in Calgary to a national Loblaw listing and a Costco Ontario rotation, built on an unlikely premise: that ghee is Canada's last viable domestic cooking fat. With a 485F smoke point, a five-year shelf life, no refrigeration required, and 30 litres of Canadian milk in every kilogram, he argues ghee is the best milk-utilization story in the country. He also has pointed words about who has been underselling South Asian consumers, and why "desi" should mean Canadian. The full video interview is on The Food Professor YouTube channel.
But first, we start with the food and agriculture news of the week.
Michael and Sylvain open on the Prime Minister's address to the nation, and the name he never said, before turning to the latest U.S. tariff recalibration, the new ban on Canadian spirits and wine, and what the September 15 and 29 deadlines mean for agri-food. Sylvain argues the real damage isn't the tariff math, it's the total absence of predictability, with dairy leaders now openly weighing whether to shift production south. Sylvain points to Mark Warner's CBC interview, Ian Lee's parallel argument, and calls for Parliament to be recalled, citing the 1988 free trade debate as precedent.
Then: reindeer. Ottawa is putting $800,000 behind a northern herd grown from a few hundred animals to 7,000, and Sylvain explains why no Canadian parent is selling Rudolph at the meat counter. Plus Sapporo's non-alcoholic production possibly heading stateside, Africa's redrawn map and its enormous agri-food potential, McDonald's dropping pumpkin spice after 34 years of PSL dominance, fresh Satov Consulting research on whether Dunkin' can win over Canadian coffee drinkers, why Sylvain would rather support than boycott, Walmart's delivery ambitions, and a farewell to New Coke architect Brian Dyson.

About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. 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 and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.