I just watched the documentary
Sugar Coated. Its parallels to the War On Science-style campaigns funded by cigarette makers and climate polluters were staggering:
- Product is cheap & easy in the short term but expensive & deadly in the long run
- A complex problem that's hard for people to understand or respond to individually
- Industry pays scientists to manufacture doubt and uncertainty about the harm caused by its highly-profitable product
- Science advocates not only hopelessly underfunded, but often outgunned with only a scientific background against a multidisciplinary campaign using marketing, political and emotional tactics
As Mother Jones has extensively reported, the sugar industry has worked hard to make sure government policy doesn't reflect the truth that
added sugar is toxic. In just the last few months, the Obama administration has taken the important step of
including added sugar on nutrition labels, but that barely scratches the surface of what could be done if progressive Democrats took on Big Sugar like they took on Big Tobacco and industrial climate polluters.
Sugar Coated is now
available on Netflix. Here's the trailer:
Sugar Coated Trailer from
The Cutting Factory on
Vimeo.
