We're so pleased to announce that James Beard Award-winning writer David Sax has joined Lavin as a new exclusive speaker. Sax is the author of The Tastemakers, a new book that examines how food trends have the power to change our culture—and the economy, marketing, business, and health—at a revolutionary pace. In his talks, he explores where these trends come from, how they grow, and what impact they have. How are food trucks disrupting the restaurant business? Why has Greek yogurt taken over the dairy case? Why are there entire bakeries devoted to cupcakes? And, most importantly, what can we learn from all this? Sax is our guide to the rise and fall of what's in vogue: from grassroots trends to those fabricated by giant marketing-machines.

One powerful example of a massive fabricated trend is one that you're probably very familiar with, yet may not have any idea how it all started: bacon. In a recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek, Sax outlines the bacon boom, starting from bacon's lonely existence as the side to eggs and the crumble in Cobb salad to the low-fat craze of the 1980s that caused pork belly prices to bottom out. When consumers weren't buying bacon, the pork industry turned to fast-food restaurants, and the bacon cheeseburger was born. Now, it's ubiquitous: bacon appears on more than two-thirds of American restaurant menus and the price has gone from under $0.30 per pound in 1989 to $5.40 today. "In terms of economic impact, nothing beats bacon," says Sax. In the video embedded above, filmed at our Toronto office, he breaks down the trend for us.

In entertaining, eye-opening talks, Sax introduces us to the economic and cultural impact of what's on our plate and in our pantry. To book David Sax as a speaker, contact The Lavin Agency.