An interesting contrast that arises from “Fed Up,” the new documentary pitched as the “Inconvenient Truth” for food that had its Boston premiere on Wednesday at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Tom Harkin (Iowa) are Senate Democrats from neighboring Farm Belt states. Harkin is accorded sainthood status after decades-long efforts against childhood obesity. Of industry mouthpieces who come before him in committee and swear that, for example, that sugary beverages have no ill effect on children who drink them: “Sometimes I just want to ask: Do you have any shame at all? … How could these people sleep at night, knowing they were lying through their teeth? … How do they live with themselves?”

He also observes, “The Federal Trade Commission has less authority to regulate ads for kids than adults. You’d think it would be the other way around.”

But Klobuchar, who is included in the film’s closing graphics as one of a long list of voices who refused to be interviewed for the film, comes in for — as it seemed to me — a level of opprobrium slightly higher than she deserved, expressly because she was such a disappointment. As in, we expect Big Food to be this way, but you were supposed to be with us, with your female, progressive-leaning self.

I write less and less about the "Center for Consumer Freedom," because a) they're liars, b) they make my blood boil with their lies, and c) every time I mention them, I make it one grain more likely that someone who didn't know about them will be infected with the scourge.

I kept notes, or tried to, during the Boston premiere of "Fed Up," the Laurie David/Katie Couric documentary on the obesity epidemic, and it has killer quote after killer quote. Here's one by Margo Wootan (left) of the Center for Science in the Public Interest:

"It's like swimming upstream if you want to be healthy against the food environment."

I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I kept notes, or tried to, during the Boston premiere of "Fed Up," the Laurie David/Katie Couric documentary on the obesity epidemic, and it has killer quote after killer quote. Here's one by Rob Lustig (left), endocrinologist, University of California, San Francisco:

One of the interesting subplots of “Fed Up,” the “Inconvenient Truth” for food led by Laurie David, Katie Couric, and director Stephanie Soechtig, is how Michelle Obama is handled.

By those not paying close attention, she is regarded as the Obesity First Lady (hold your guns, there Michelle, that’s very different from the “obese First Lady,” which I Did. Not. Say.), promoter of fresh garden food and protector of young children.

But she only started out that way, for just a few months, before being reined in by the commercial juggernaut.

Maybe this post has a valid point, or maybe it’s just dressed up to avoid outright braggartry. You decide.

I attended the Boston premiere of the new food documentary “Fed Up” Wednesday, and I was struck by how many of the experts quoted in the film that I’ve had personal contact with:

* Rob Lustig, perhaps the most quoted voice? Sat next to him at the Commonwealth Club of California a couple of years ago, on a panel I originated.

I saw the new documentary “Fed Up” in a special showing at the Harvard School for Public Health in Boston Wednesday, and it was as though my life passed before my eyes.

Among the film’s techniques was to give Flip cameras to 13 teens who live with persistent, significant overweight, and I can only hope I would have been as articulate, perceptive, and emotionally present as some of these kids were.

I’m not a constant reader of my RSS feed, which sometimes brings stories that were published by separate people at disparate times into my view as one tidy package. Like these:

The headline reads, “Don’t tax my soda! Study shows consumers put choice first,” but what do we learn from it?

I do not have permission to post the following, and if the author, Paul McDonald — a lawyer, no less — wants me to take it down, I will. But I'm entirely in agreement with his views, and want to extend their reach by whatever small measure I can provide. This article was published on politico.com (maybe they'll object, too?), and I saw it via Michele Simon, a public-interest advocate I admire.

Opinion: Big Food bears some responsibility