When we spoke with him recently, Kennedy said he didn't know all that much about GMOs before he decided to tackle the topic. He told MUNCHIES he wanted to take a novel approach—one no filmmakers seemed to be taking—and just stick to the data about genetic engineering, thereby arriving at a rational, evidence-based assessment of what may be the future of our food system. He said, "If somebody is fear-mongering, I wanna out them. If somebody is manipulating facts and not using data, I wanna out them. And if they're denying data from the other side—like saying there's no room for any GMO anywhere in the universe because that's gonna only further this quote-unquote agro-industrial system, that just an oversimplification of a very complicated conversation."

Earlier this month, 45 prominent scientists, academics, and writers—many from UC Berkeley—signed a statement that blasted the film as a "piece of propaganda." The eminent nutritionist and academic Marion Nestle wrote her own refutation of the film, dubbing it "a slick piece of GMO industry propaganda." Then, a second backlash followed, with many of the signatories of the letter suddenly receiving Freedom of Information Act requests asking for their emails about the film. Nestle's blog was so overrun by trolls and she had to shut the comments section down.

As it turned out, the reception that Food Evolution is receiving is unlike anything Kennedy has ever faced before. Although the film garnered many positive reviews, some well-respected experts in the field of GMOs are calling Kennedy a shill for corporate interests.

Food Evolution, which opened in theaters earlier this month, was something of a departure for director Scott Hamilton Kennedy, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his film The Garden in 2008. Unlike his earlier documentaries, which have largely examined social justice issues in impoverished communities, Food Evolution is a deep dive into the world of genetically engineered food. With an eye toward the "9 billion 2050" conundrum—when the world population is predicted to explode—the film examines whether GMOs, despite their controversial reputation, are actually a safe and reasonable answer to the inevitable problem of feeding an overpopulated planet.

So here's roughly what Food Evolution concludes: GMOs are not, in fact, the devil. Instead, they appear to be a safe and viable solution to feeding a world population that will be exploding in the very near future. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the iconic astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York—the man whom the New York Times calls "perhaps the most credible public scientist on the planet"—saw eye-to-eye with Hamilton and decided to lend his services as narrator of Food Evolution. Bill Nye also appears in the film, as do many other prominent scientists and experts.

"My answer is zero money came from Monsanto. But how do you know who to trust? [My critics] or me? Go to the evidence. Go to the evidence."

But following some early screenings of the film—and despite some very favorable reviews in the mainstream press—critics of GMOs began to state their opposition to Food Revolution's treatment of the issue. And now some of the luminaries who were interviewed in the film—including Marion Nestle and Michael Pollan—are disavowing any association with it. Nestle wrote on her blog, "I have asked repeatedly to have my short interview clip removed from this film. The director refuses. He believes his film is fair and balanced. I do not. I am often interviewed and hardly ever quoted incorrectly or out of context. This film is one of those rare exceptions. In my 10-second clip, I say that I am unaware of convincing evidence that eating GM foods is unsafe—this is what I said, but it is hugely out of context."

Critics have also questioned how the film was bankrolled. They say that by receiving funding from the Institute of Food Technologists, a professional association of food scientists and technologists from the processed food industry, Kennedy is in the back pocket of the agrichemical interests. (IFT's previous president is a former DuPont and Monsanto executive who now works for a pesticide trade association, and the current president-elect works for DuPont.) Nestle speculated in her blog post, "I can't help but think Monsanto or the Biotechnology Innovation Organization must have given IFT a grant for this purpose," although she acknowledges that "IFT takes complete takes complete responsibility for commissioning the film."

Timothy Wise, a Senior Research Fellow at Tufts University's Global Development and Environment Institute and a senior researcher on the Small Planet Institute's Land and Food Rights Program, told MUNCHIES, "I withdrew my consent to be in the film when the filmmakers finally admitted, after much prodding, that the film had been commissioned by an industry-affiliated group with biotechnology professionals in leadership."

"I have asked repeatedly to have my short interview clip removed from this film. The director refuses. He believes his film is fair and balanced. I do not."

MUNCHIES asked IFT just how much funding they provided for the film, but the organization declined to give specifics; its website says all funding for the film came from "revenue generated primarily through membership dues, scientific publishing, events and advertising, and without contribution from any other organization or company."