Stats Canada Food Fight, $ US1.4 Trillion Farm Bill, Rib Robots and guest Ian Lee, Associate Professor at Carleton University | Sprott School

In the latest episode of The Food Professor podcast, hosts Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois are joined by the esteemed Dr. Ian Lee, an Associate Professor at Carleton University. Together, they delve into a series of pressing topics in food and agriculture, leveraging Dr. Lee's extensive knowledge and experience. The discussion covers competition in the food industry, the anticipated impact of the Code of Conduct, and Canada's economic outlook.

The episode kicks off with a crucial conversation about the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) and its potential implications for Canada. The hosts then turn their attention to Statistics Canada's food basket pricing, a topic of significant interest and debate, questioning whether it underestimates or overestimates the real costs. They reference a Toronto Sun column penned by Sylvain that highlights some discrepancies in the pricing.

Attention shifts to the upcoming US Farm Bill, which is anticipated to allocate $1.4 trillion over ten years, juxtaposed against Canada's comparatively modest $3.5 billion Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) over five years. The hosts also correct a previous claim regarding Amazon's "just walk out" technology, clarifying misconceptions about the system's operation.

The conversation further explores the evolving landscape of automation in meatpacking, highlighting Smithfield's initiative to deploy robots for tasks like rib pulling, significantly reducing waste and reassigning workers to less physically demanding roles. This shift toward automation, exemplified by Smithfield's strategy to reassign about 500 employees annually, marks a transformative phase in food production, aiming for higher efficiency and worker safety.

Lastly, we touch upon the wine industry's challenges, noting a significant surplus in California's bulk wine market, showcasing the broader economic and logistical complexities facing today's food and agriculture sectors.

Statistics Canada PHOTO BY TONY CALDWELL/POSTMEDIA

https://www.wsj.com/business/meet-the-robots-slicing-your-barbecue-ribs-338a7794?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

About Ian

I am an Associate Professor at Carleton University in the Sprott School where I started in 1988, teaching the 4th year and(later) the MBA Strategic Management capstone course, as well as related courses such as International Business Strategy, from then to now. 

After dropping out of grade 12 in 1971, I worked at a series of minimum wage jobs for 3 years in the early 1970s. In 1974, I started with an American financial services multinational as a credit manager trainee eventually becoming a Branch Manager in several branches in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. I was then recruited in 1977 by Canada’s oldest bank (that predates Canada by a half century), where I was given outstanding training in banking, economics and management by British bankers. I was employed at the BMO Main Office Branch (4thlargest in all Canada at that time) at 144 Wellington and Sparks opposite Parliament Hill and beside the National Press Club (Parliament subsequently acquired, refurbished and renamed the branch as Sir John A. Macdonald Building for Parliament Hill receptions). As Loan and Mortgage Manager in my mid 20s, I dealt with cabinet ministers in the Trudeau Government, Senators, MPs, national journalists, Supreme Court judges, deputy ministers, national NGOs and staff of embassies including the Chinese and USSR Ambassadors, as well as national institutions such as the Bank of Canada. And in that capacity throughout those years, I evaluatedpersonal and corporate financial statements and lent millions and millions of dollars in demand loans, consumer loans, mortgage loans and business loans.  

After completing my entire undergraduate degree on a part time basis in the evenings over 10 years while employed full time, I resigned from the bank to enroll full time in a master’s degree in public policy in 1982 at Carleton University. However, I completed the second year of the master’s degree full time in evenings in 1983-84 as I accepted a position as a full time policy analyst with Canada Post Corporation in Corporate Finance and Banking, Head Office. Upon graduation in 1984, I resigned from Canada Post to enroll in the PhD program in the public policy stream at Carleton University graduating in 1989. My 850 page PhD thesis was titled: The Canadian Post Office: Origins, growth and decay of the state postal function, 1765-1981. While completing my PhD, I was employed for one summer in 1985 in the Privy Council Office, Machinery of Government.

Shortly after starting with the Sprott School on a tenure track in 1988, the Berlin Wall came down in October 1989. Then in 1990-91, Carleton University School of Business was awarded $3 million by Foreign Affairs Canada to establish a Canadian Business School in Poland at theprestigious Central School for Planning and Statistics – later renamed the Warsaw School of Economics. In April 1991, I became the first western professor to teach in a university in a former communist country under an OECD country funded business management program. I have continued to teach at Warsaw School of Economics (in the EMBA since 1997) where I have had a bird’s eye view of the remarkable transformation of Poland from an impoverished, corrupt centralizedsocialist economy managed by the elite nomenklatura to a remarkably vibrant prosperous decentralized democratic country in transition.

Since 1990, I have taught approximately 100 times across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, mostly in EMBA programs, in many different countries ranging from Poland to Russia to Iran to Ukraine to Cuba to Romania to Slovenia to Latvia to Czech to Argentina to Croatiato Mexico and after 1997 in China – always inAmerican or Canadian universities in partnership with a local university. I taught a number of times for the University of Washington (Seattle) with ASEBUSS in Bucharest, Romania; Katz Graduate School U Pittsburg in Prague; SUNY Buffalo with Riga Business School, Latvia; Carnegie-Mellon with IMI-Kiev, Ukraine; Carleton Sprott School with Qeshm Institute in Qeshm and Tehran, Iran; University of Ottawa in Hong Kong; Carleton Sprott School with Donghua University in Shanghai; UQAM at Warsaw School of Economics; Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship, Warsaw; Czech Management Center, Prague; IEDC, Bled, Slovenia; Zagreb, Croatia.

These extensive international teaching experiencesover a third of a century, provided a much deeper understanding of non-western, often authoritarian, frequently deeply corrupt, state centrally planned or administered countries sometimes transitioning to western, rule of law, decentralized economies and societies.

From 1996-98, I was appointed as Supervisor of the Bachelor of International Business in the Sprott School to address significant structural issues that emerged after this innovative new program had been operational for 2 years. In 2007, I was appointed as Chair of the MBA Restructuring Committee that led to the replacement of the former thesis based master’s degree with a brand new professional MBA degree. We benchmarked key competitor MBA programs and completed extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders that led to the proposed new structure including 50 new MBA graduate courses. I was then appointed the new MBA Director from 2007-2010 to implement the new program including staffing 50 new MBA courses with permanent faculty and contract instructors.

I completed two sabbaticals in the USA: at American University in Washington DC in 1995 and Cal State Monterey Bay one hour south of Silicon Valley from 2001-2003. 

I am presently a member of the Carleton University Board of Governors, 2016-2019. I am also a member of the Sprott School MBA Committee, Carleton University EURUS Advisory Board and the Carleton University Graduate Appeal Committee since 2010.

During the past 50 years, in addition to visiting every Canadian province, I completed road trips through 43 of 50 US states and visited 8 of 14 US Presidential libraries. I have visited most West, Central and East European countries including living for 2 years each at RCAF 3 Wing, Zweibrucken, West Germany andRCAF 1 Wing, Marville France in the mid 1950s (where my father flew F-86 Sabre jets and later F-104 Starfighter jets).

Over the years, I appeared extensively in the media including CBC, CTV and Global National News, CBC TV On the Money weekly on The Roundup, and Power and Politics and CBC Radio Syndication. I am a weekly regular on CFRA Rob Snow program and Sirius-National Post Radio as well as the Corus Radio Networkin Toronto. Over the last 10 years, I published 45 Op-Eds in the Globe and Mail, New York Times, National Post, Financial Post and Ottawa Citizen concerning contemporary public policy issues as well as research monographs for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute concerning Canada Post, supply management, alternative payment instruments, deficits and the retirement income system.

Since 2008, I appeared by invitation before House of Commons and Senate finance, banking, industry and trade committees 25 times concerning public policy debates. I have been invited by Global TV to attend every federal budget lockup as one of their expert witnesses since 2008.

I have published multiple times in the annual edition of How Ottawa Spends concerning Canada’s retirement system, the PBO, deficits, corporate income reform and the Liberal downsizing of 1995-97 and the Conservative Government downsizing of 2010-15.

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.