"FOOD INC." GOT FUNDING FROM SODA POP FORTUNE

KANSAS CITY -- The film documentary "Food, Inc.," which bashes soda pop and other products using high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other corn derivatives, was financed in large measure by a family fortune derived in part from bottling HFCS-laden Pepsi products, producer and director Robert Kenner said here Tuesday.

The film is highly critical of the mainstream food industry, accusing it of marketing products that allegedly make consumers fat, sick, or both. The film zeroes in on the versatility of corn, which provides a host of products including the widely used sweetener.

Kenner said at a conference sponsored by the Center for Food Integrity (CFI) that part of the financing for his film was provided by Bill Pohlad, owner of River Road Entertainment and a member of a multi-millionaire Minneapolis family that owns, among many other thing, baseball's Minnesota Twins and PepsiAmericas, “the world’s second-largest manufacturer, seller and distributor of PepsiCo beverages," according to a holding company web site. Many PepsiCo products are sweetened with HFCS.

Also contributing to the film's creation was Jeff Skoll, owner of Participant Media and the first president of internet auction firm eBay, Kenner said. Skoll reportedly netted $2 billion when he cashed out of eBay. Pohlad and Skoll brankrolled the film, he said.

Both River Road and Participant Media specialize in socially conscious films. Participant produced Al Gore's doomsday documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," as well as anti-oil "Syriana," "North Country," which attacked workplace sexual harassment, and "Fast Food Nation," a theatrical based on the non-fiction book by Eric Schlosser, whose observations are a major element in "Food, Inc."

Pohlad's River Road had a hit with the gay drama "Brokeback Mountain" and will soon unreel "Fair Game," based on the naming of CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Kenner said the highly successful publicity campaign for the film cost less than $300,000. He said the film was greatly aided by reams of positive publicity and favorable reviews.

In a discussion after Kenner's remarks to the CFI Food System Summit, CFI chief Charles Arnot asked why the film identified numerous alleged problems but offered little in the way of solutions.

"As a filmmaker, all I can do is ask questions," Kenner said. "I wanted people to think about there their food is coming from. I am not here with solutions to this problem."

While most of the criticism of the film has come from the point of view of conventional production, some criticism has come from other points of the compass, he said.

"The film has been attacked by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for not urging people to be vegan," Kenner said.