Food, Inc. Director’s New Film Shines Light on Climate-Change Deniers

Robert Kenner's new film, "Merchants of Doubt," is about a "product" that is being "sold in courtrooms and the halls of Congress, he says, on television and, occasionally, in newspapers."

"In Washington, everyone’s always pushing something.

There’s Robert Kenner, sitting in the private banquet room of a Georgetown hotel, in front of a poster for his new documentary, “Merchants of Doubt,” which he has come to town, he says, to “sell.” That choice of words is fitting. Kenner’s movie — a follow-up to the filmmaker’s acclaimed, Oscar-nominated “Food, Inc.” — is all about marketing.

Unlike that 2008 film, which took on the machinery of American agribusiness and its trafficking in junk food, “Merchants of Doubt” isn’t about a product that you can buy at the store. Rather, Kenner says, it’s about something less tangible if no less bad for you, should you swallow it."

Michael O'Sullivan reports for the Washington Post March 16, 2015.