Whether it’s the Beyond Meat Burger or the latest high-end locally-sourced veggie charcuterie, plant-based proteins are all the rage. With technology finally cracking the code on taste on a large scale, and major quick service chains like McDonald’s and A&W taking plant-based protein to the masses, innovators have seen their stock surge amidst growing demand for sustainable food.
As this fast growing industry continues to evolve, what does the next phase in the plant-based revolution look like, what’s the potential, and what is the opportunity for Canada?
Join Canadian Club Toronto on February 27th for a lively and informative discussion with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Professor of Food Distribution and Policy at Dalhousie University, Candice Hutchings, Consultant and Author of “The Edgy Veg,” Cary Pinkowski, Portfolio Manager at Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, and Johann Tergesen, President & CEO of Burcon NutraScience, a Vancouver-based plant-based technology innovator, on the plant-based protein opportunity and how Canada can take a big bite of an industry under disruption.
The Very Good Butcher will be providing plant based charcuterie for the event, including pepperoni, sausages, rib bites, roast beast and more!
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois
Professor, Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie University
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Scientific Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. He is as well the former Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. While at the University of Guelph, he was also the Associate Dean of Research for the College of Business and Economics.
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.
He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.
Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. He also has done some work on social licensing, which include public trust assessments and risk communication evaluations. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. He conducts policy analysis, evaluation, and demonstration projects for government agencies and major foundations focusing on agricultural policies and community development both in Canada and in development settings. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. 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, in the United States, Brazil, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, China, Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands.
Candice Hutchings
Author and Consultant
Candice, the face of “The Edgy Veg”, is on a journey to revolutionize how we think about food, eco-conscious living, and feminism. Author of the cookbook, ”The Edgy Veg: 138 Carnivore-Approved Vegan Recipes”, Candice delivers vegan recipes with attitude and comedy. Edgy by nature, both her popular YouTube channel, and Instagram pages have disrupted the vegan community with her candid and humorous take on activism not only for animals and food built differently, but also mental health, the environment, and female empowerment.
Cary Pinkowski
Portfolio Manager and Investment Advisor, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management
A leader and innovator in the Canadian equity arena, Cary Pinkowski prides himself as an early adopter on major investment trends. This includes the internet, gold, energy metal, cannabis and now the food technology space. He has been a passionate and fervent advocate for his long term bullish stance on the US equity markets. Pinkowski founded Entrée Resources, which discovered part of the Oyu Tolgoi deposit, which went onto become one of the largest copper gold mines in the world. Cary Pinkowski leverages extensive connections across key industry sectors and builds long-term trusted relationships with clients who count on him for top-quality service, advice, and performance. Cary is a Ted 2016 to 2019 attendee and is inspired by innovators and entrepreneurs globally that think differently. Cary has developed extensive connections with CEOs and executives of many leading technology and resource companies in Canada. He is a Portfolio Manager and Investment Advisor at Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management and has over 25 years of experience with North American and European capital markets. Cary Pinkowski works exclusively with high net worth individuals, family offices, and strategic institutional partners.
Johann Tergesen
President & CEO, Burcon NutraScience Corporation
Mr. Tergesen is a twenty-year veteran of the plant-based food industry. He co-founded Burcon NutraScience Corporation in October 1999, and since that time he has overseen Burcon’s strategic, operational and financing initiatives including the establishment of Merit Functional Foods, which is building the world’s first commercial canola protein production facility. He has a life-long passion for the environment and deep knowledge of the plant-based food economy, having led Burcon’s market outreach as well as the company’s R&D and commercialization efforts for over two decades. Prior to his role as president and CEO of Burcon, Mr. Tergesen was vice president and treasurer of BurCon Properties Limited, a real estate development and ownership company with assets in excess of $3 billion. Mr. Tergesen has been with the Burcon group of companies since 1995. Mr. Tergesen holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Winnipeg, an M.B.A. from McGill University, and is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia.
When he is not in Vancouver working, you are likely to find him exploring any one of Vancouver Island’s many spectacular river watersheds fly fishing or mushroom foraging.
Susan Krashinsky Roberston
Reporter, Globe and Mail
Susan covers the retail industry for Report on Business. Before joining The Globe and Mail in 2009, Susan worked as a freelance reporter contributing to the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette and other publications, as well as CBC Radio’s Dispatches and Search Engine. She has a Masters degree in journalism from Carleton University. In 2008 she worked at a radio station in Kigali, Rwanda as part of a media development project through Carleton. She has also lived in Osaka, Japan.
