March 28, 2024 0 comment

Jamil Karim Discusses Food Innovation and CFIN’s Career Hub – FoodGrads Podcast Episode #42

Last Updated on December 13, 2024

On today’s episode we are talking about the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN), CFIN’s career resource library, Jamil Karim’s career story and cool innovation happening in Canada.

Table of Contents

About Jamil Karim

Jamil Karim is the Director of Communications for CFIN. He combines more than a decade of marketing and communications experience with a passion for helping people and companies tell their stories. He also has extensive experience working with industry, where he’s led media and community relations strategies for some of the country’s fastest-growing tech companies. Additionally, Jamil is deeply committed to having a positive impact on his community.

What is CFIN?

The Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) is a not-for-profit organization connecting the Canadian food and beverage industry to new ideas, opportunities, and technologies. By funding transformative projects and fostering collaboration, CFIN aims to position Canada as a global leader in food innovation. Their initiatives include a Career Hub, designed to support professionals and students in the food sector.

Key Takeaways:

Career Path: Jamil shares how he transitioned into communications and why storytelling is critical in the food sector.
CFIN’s Mission: Learn how CFIN is building Canada’s food tech ecosystem through funding and collaboration.
Food Innovation: Insights into emerging trends like cellular agriculture and green-tech.
Career Advice: Tips for students on networking, skill-building, and volunteering to advance their careers.
Collaboration: Why teamwork and cross-industry partnerships are essential for innovation.

Episode Timestamps

[0:00] Introduction
[1:43] Jamil’s career path
[6:57] Skills required in communication roles
[14:26] About CFIN
[23:15] Food tech innovation and collaboration in Canada
[26:36] Green-tech definition
[28:37] CFIN’s career hub
[34:45] Jamil’s research process
[38:05] Canadian innovation trends
[41:27] Challenges of implementing innovation
[44:35] CFIN funded startups
[48:58] Advice for students looking to innovate

Resources Mentioned:

Sponsor

This week’s episode is sponsored by:

Canadian Food Innovation Network: Check out CFIN’s Career Hub to learn more about CFIN’s free membership, their Food Innovator Career Hub, and how can you can join the fastest growing food business community in the country.

Memorable Quotes from Jamil Karim

I feel like food is this last frontier of innovation. And the urgency around bringing new ideas and new technology to the food sector is ratcheting up to just the fact that we’re adding obviously more people across the globe, weather events are happening all over the globe, not just here. And there is this kind of gap where I feel like there isn’t enough innovation being used yet in the food sector. – Jamil Karim

If you need a source for a story then bother me. CFIN has over 4500 Members, I can find you a very niche specific solution provider or I can get you someone who’s a huge through tech company and everything in between. – Jamil Karim

Cellular agriculture is a very cool new emerging industry here and this is not going to replace traditional agriculture. It’s just not. You just got to look at this from ‘how can we add to our food supply sustainably add to the food supply?’ because if we’re reliant on traditional processes, Then we are at risk from you know, like we talked about like weather patterns that can really disrupt the food supply.” – Jamil Karim

Time is on your side when you are a new grad. You are not married yet you do not have kids your job is not like taking all the grants you got some use it this is the like opportune time for you to volunteer grow your network and get out there like take advantage of it for sure. – Jamil Karim