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The Food Focus team generates an annual Food Trends Report to highlight key factors that will be front and center in the food discourse in the coming years. As I reflect on the past two (and the development of the next one – albeit later than ideal) I realize that we’ve been quite effective in highlighting issues that are important in food. Given it is the end of the year, I thought I would pat the Food Focus team on the back and highlight some of the key successes. I am clea

I recently sat down with a group of six vegans to record a podcast (stay tuned in the coming weeks). My objective was to understand their perspective. I expect some who listen to the conversation will be critical of the fact that I didn’t challenge any of the statements they made. It felt, however, that it was most important to let them answer my questions about veganism without engaging them in a debate. Many of these conversations devolve into debate and I believed it was i

We recently wrote an article titled “Meat Demand is changing but its not because of the vegans.”. Our primary point was that there are many Canadians who are eating less meat overall, but still some eating meat – flexitarians. I often hear complaints that the vegans are the ones driving this reduction. We just wanted to make the point that focusing on vegans (and vegetarians) misses the point somewhat and overlooks the real driver of reduced meat consumption. We did suggest t

A piece that my colleagues Alfons Weersink, Molly Gallant and I published in the conversation.com on March 11th, 2019. Meat consumption in North America is changing. Product developers and policy-makers need to understand the reasons for that change. It’s tempting to attribute the decrease in meat consumption to a rise in vegetarianism and veganism, but not all vegans are the same, and overall they play a relatively small role in consumption changes. How is meat consumption c

Vegans and vegetarians have been getting considerable attention. The move to increasingly plant-based diets was reinforced by the newly released Canada Food Guide. The change in Canadian meat consumption is real but the truth is likely that it’s not due to vegans or vegetarians. The reasons are many (and we have an upcoming blog post that outlines them) but increasing number of vegans and vegetarians are an important contributor. The percentage of vegans and vegetarians in Ca

The introduction of Canada’s new food guide has created a significant stir. The new guide has moved away from a historic focus on servings and food groups, to proportions of food presented on a plate. The guide recommends that half your plate be fruits and vegetables, a quarter be proteins, and another quarter whole grains. Many are suggesting fundamental changes in Canadians’ eating habits will result from these changes but the reality is likely much less extreme. Perhaps th

A piece that my colleague Al Weersink and I published in the Conversation on April 17th, 2018. Biologically speaking, humans are omnivores and we like to eat a variety of things. There is increasing interest in all sorts of alternative sources of protein as we diversify our diets. This trend is accelerating in 2018. According to Nielsen, the consumer analytics company, the proportion of Canadians identifying as vegetarian and vegan is still relatively small (six per cent and