The ‘food professor’ has lots to say
BIBLE HILL, N.S. – When it comes to food, Sylvain Charlebois has a lot of information to share.
Charlebois, director of the Agrifood Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, is known as “the food professor,” and will be guest speaker at this year’s Foody Friday event in Bible Hill.
“I love to do community talks, because I’m talking with real people,” he said. “It’s nice to connect with consumers and get them to think about their relationship with food.”
And that relationship is changing. “My job is about understanding what’s happening, the future of food and the opportunities.”
Charlebois has worked with food throughout his life. He was raised in rural Quebec and worked on farms while growing up.
He’ll speak about changes in diet, and the relationship between food and the climate crisis.
“There are a lot of people out there wondering if they’re serving their bodies well by the way they consume food, and this is a good opportunity to address some points,” he said. “Some of what I’ll have to say will depend on who’s in the audience and what they want to talk about. I have so much data on so many trends, I can answer a lot of questions.”
One of the trends he’s noticed the last few years is the increase in eating out. Within a few years, Canadians are expected to spend as much on restaurant meals as they do on food to prepare at home.
“Vegan and vegetarians tend to cook more than the average Canadian, but that could change because there are more options for them at restaurants now,” he said.
“With food, choice is good, and variety is good. Food democracy is great. We need to recognize we’re all
“There are a lot of people out there wondering if they’re serving their bodies well by the way they consume food, and this is a good opportunity to address some points,”
Sylvain Charlebois
different and see food differently.”
Charlebois will be speaking in the student learning commons at Macrae Library, on the Dal AC campus at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28. Everyone is welcome to attend.