Loblaw's Paul Uys heads Food Institute

Former senior Loblaw executive, Paul Uys has been appointed for a two-year term as senior director external of the Food Institute of the University of Guelph.

The Food Institute is a relatively new initiative in recognition of the fact most faculties at the university include food as a component.

Its purpose is to engage external stakeholders in dealing with the key issues surrounding food and the supply chain.

In an interview with Canadian Grocer Uys said the institute would focus on three main areas: assisting industry and supporting small business to help them deal with with emerging issues; a major food seminar in June of 2015 to groom and mentor leadership in the supply chain by presenting world emerging leaders, and knowledge brokering through the institute’s global reach, first focussing on world experts in gluten intolerance.

“The issues we all face are how are we going to feed the world’s population of 9 billion people, through food safety, sustainability and the issue of health and wellbeing,” he said.

The phrase “from farm to fork” needs to be changed to “from fork to farm” said Uys, since it's consumers who drive trends.

Uys began working with the Institute in October 2013, investigating the needs of the Canadian food sector and how best to meet the current and future industry and market demands.

It’s his hope that the Food Institute will play a leading role in developing the right types of partnerships and innovative new products to meet the needs of today’s consumers.

“Ten to 15 years ago, we didn’t dream of issues like diminishing biodiversity, water security, and our ability to harvest natural capital. There is a very urgent need from a broad Canadian perspective that organizations at the market level need to use their influence to ensure the changes begin to take place,” said Uys.