07/29/2017 / By Ethan Huff
Fake science guru Neil deGrasse Tyson will have his voice featured in a new documentary film entitled Food Evolution that claims to provide an independent analysis of the facts on modern food. But a closer look reveals that the entire project is more of an advertising campaign for the chemical industry than it is an honest look at the science. On top of that, it embodies a silent partnership with convicted felon and domestic abuser Jon Entine of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).
Directed by Academy Award-nominated director Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Food Evolution claims to be objective when, in truth, it’s the exact opposite. Its intended purpose as an industry-messaging media vehicle is hardly a secret for anyone paying attention, as the film was devised back in 2014 by the Institute for Food Technologists (IFT), an industry trade group that profits from the cultivation and sale of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and their corresponding crop chemicals like glyphosate.
As a matter of fact, IFT is funded in large part by big food corporations, and its president at the time when Food Evolution was first hatched in the idea lab was former DuPont and Monsanto executive Janet Collins. Collins has since moved up the corporate ladder even further, and now works for the pesticide trade association CropLife America. IFT’s new President-Elect is Cindy Stewart, an employee at DuPont.
While IFT hired Kennedy to direct the film, it maintained full control over its direction, which is unabashedly pro-GMO and pro-chemicals. Any science that deviates from this message is omitted from the film’s content, while anything and everything that might suggest that biotechnology and chemical poisons are necessary to produce food is lauded and praised as “truth” in the film.
“The film’s credibility suffers from their choice to embrace only the science and scientists who side with the chemical industry players who profit from GMOs and the chemicals used on them, while ignoring science and data that doesn’t fit that agenda,” writes Stacy Malken in an article published by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK).
The film ignores all sorts of pertinent facts, including the inherent dangers of Monsanto’s Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide, which is sprayed on upwards of 90 percent of all GMO crops. Not only does the film ignore the dangers of Roundup, but it even goes so far as to deny them, quoting an alleged farmer who states that the chemical poison has “very, very low toxicity; lower than coffee, lower than salt.”
As far as Entine’s involvement with the film, his Genetic Literacy Project (GLP) is credited as having spearheaded the transition from the idea phase to production phase. In a 2014 planning call meeting, the minutes of which were obtained by USRTK, Entine stated that he would be able to garner “a personal pledge of $100,000 from a private business person” if the rest of the funding could be obtained from elsewhere.
Entine is the same corporate propagandist and pseudo-journalist who on numerous occasions has blatantly shilled for Monsanto and other key players in the chemical industry. He also works for ACSH, a known industry front group that SourceWatch describes as holding “a generally apologetic stance regarding virtually every other health and environmental hazard produced by modern industry, accepting corporate funding from Coca-Cola, Kellogg, General Mills, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association, among others.”
Entine was also caught up in a lengthy and bitter divorce with his former wife, where he was accused of abusing her as well as threatening his young daughter’s therapist. Entine’s ex-wife has pleaded with the court to force Entine into a psychiatric evaluation over his extreme and violent behavior.
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