Q&A: Media mogul Todd Wagner takes on highly processed foods

BASHINGTON — The idea for Todd Wagner’s new advocacy group, FoodFight USA, he says, came to him after visiting George Clooney in Lake Como. He recruited Morgan Freeman, who is “obviously” a friend. He personally lobbied Arnold Schwarzenegger and current California Governor Gavin Newsom to support the food manufacturers’ nightmare scenario – a first-in-the-nation law banning certain food additives in the state that went into effect last year.

Wagner is best known as co-owner of Magnolia Pictures with longtime business partner Mark Cuban, but now, he told STAT in an extensive interview, he is dedicated to fighting food manufacturers and their industrial creations, ultra-processed foods.

“I want people to be angry,” said Wagner, whose net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion. “This is an indictment of the food companies that have ruined our food supply, and now we wake up 50, 60 years later with a nation that is unhealthy.”