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.

Hailing from Saulteau First Nations, and splitting his time between his Northern home community and Victoria, Art is as comfortable in a big city board room as he his skinning a moose with a pocketknife in a hailstorm.

Art is best known as the host and co-producer of APTN’s international food series Moosemeat & Marmalade, which showcases Indigenous foods, traditional knowledge, and outdoor cooking techniques. Art holds an MA in Language Revitalization, is an advocate of Indigenous food sovereignty, a decolonizing thought leader, and multi-talented entertainer.

He’s the former chief of Saulteau FN where he grew up in the boreal forests and mountains of Northern BC, learning how to hunt, to cooperate with the land through seasonal subsistence practices, and to approach the world through a Cree/Dene lens. He specializes in Indigenous thought systems, such as those contained in traditional languages. Art has extensive experience in working with communities for cultural revitalization, be that through entertainment, workshops, program development, strategic planning, or consulting.

While he can hold his own in the boardroom, the classroom, the kitchen, and the bush, Art dominates the stage as a comedian, a musician, and an MC, and has the awards and accomplishments to prove it. No matter what role Art is undertaking, he always shows up with his full skillset, be it traditional wisdom informing a strategic plan, or a comedy routine exploring Cree and English words that sound the same but are NSFW to interchange. He’s the embodiment of a modern-day Indigenous Renaissance man, and rumour has it, his moose stew can cure hangovers, while his campfire tales have mended broken hearts…or so the stories go. You can ask him when he attends your event.