RIGHT TO HARM, A Public Health Crisis Too Big to Ignore
Poisoned families. Contaminated water. Toxic land. Animal cruelty. Air that burns. Warehoused animals. Right to Farm? Or Right to Harm? Since when are the economic rights of the animal agribusiness more important than the basic rights and health of people?
The powerful documentary RIGHT TO HARM raises an important warning about the serious public health impacts of factory farming across the United States. In the film, farmers, mothers, scientists, politicians and everyday citizens share intimate stories of how their lives were forever changed by factory farming. Exposed to numerous and pervasive toxic chemicals, pollution and waste, the surrounding factory farm communities share the countless tragic stories of heart disease, asthma, cancer, lung disease, COPD, and immune-related diseases that residents acquired and changed their lives forever. Facing health consequences, plummeting home values, and fed up with the lack of regulation, these disenfranchised citizens band together to demand justice from their legislators and create nationwide reform.
With no required applications necessary for factory farms. No permits. No regulation and rampant de-regulation. No public hearings. No required health impact assessments. The number of CAFOs is on a rapid increase across the U.S. Watch this important documentary exposing the social injustice of factory farms on America’s communities and the group of citizens committed to fighting against them, and for their basic human rights to good health, clean air and water, unpolluted land, and where the animals are free to roam outside in a natural setting.
Film Premier: February 2019
Film Length: 1 hour, 15 minutes
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Quotes from the Film
“We are engaged in a CAFOs war. Because we are changing public opinion. Democracy starts at the bottom, not at the top. We need a nationwide moratorium on CAFOs. It’s a broken system.”
“This kind of agriculture we have created is an industrial model for animals, called CAFOs – Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. This is now 90-95 percent of all animal foods produced by CAFOs.”
“This size of factory farm can produce 48 million gallons of liquid manure per year. There are times during the day that the air burns your throat.”
“Rural communities are dying because of industrial farming.”
“It’s up to “We The People” to hold the factory farms accountable.
“What people called “trouble,” we called “justice.”
“We need to take a stand. It’s human rights over corporate rights. It’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Where do you go in this world that will blow animal manure waste onto surrounding public and private property? Who thinks they have the right to do this?
“Are the economic rights of the animal agribusiness more important than the basic rights of people?”
“I still have a house I cannot sell, that I am paying taxes on. This was our dream home.”
“Everyone has the right to make a living, but not to destroy someone else’s life in doing so.”
“We are headed to an agriculture that very few people will own.”
“The manure smell is inescapable. Even 12 miles away.”
“This industry is out of control. We could have done much better without CAFOs.”
“Manure is pushed out into fields—spreading liquid animal waste on massive fields, in communities, contaminating clean water wells, making people violently sick.”
“Who is going to buy this house? You cannot smell without getting sick. The sour smell of mortality with houses full of dead chickens. Throat burning. Eyes burning. Asma triggers. This is how you become a victim. My husband still has the long-term health effects from this.”
“Look at what is happening to employment in rural areas. We have 90 percent fewer hog farms and farmers. We have replaced independent family farms with CAFOs. We need to go back to a resilient model – of supporting our neighbors, rural communities, where the animals are free to roam and wander, it’s healthier, and everyone is happier.”
“Hickman Family Egg Farm, AZ – The elected official who represents the district, is also a co-owner of this farm, and opposes the rights of the community. They start operating without any air quality permit. They falsified the Stormwater Pollution Commencement Plan and lied about the date. Their philosophy is ‘We will do what’s good for business and ask for forgiveness from regulators later.’ We’re at the end of our lives, and we can’t enjoy it as we dreamed.”
“My son would get off the school bus, and he would immediately vomit from the stench of these farms. When the doctor wanted to check him for cancer, I said we have to move.”
“People’s health is being jeopardized from the exposure – heart disease, asthma, cancer, lung disease, COPD, immune-related diseases. No health impact assessments are required. There are many public health impacts from Chicken CAFOs.”
“In North Carolina, you have a huge issue with how they farm pigs. In that state, they spray the manure all over the surrounding land creating toxic waste. It is environmental slavery. These hog houses and manure lagoons go back to 1986.”
“Steve Wing, researcher, researching on industrial agriculture and how it impacts people. Levels of gasses and particles recorded caused respiratory distress, lung function, stress and anxiety, and the inability to participate in outdoor activities.”
“These corporations are turning traditional family farmers right to farm into a corporate RIGHT TO HARM. A right to pollute the air and water with potentially toxic biological waste and chemicals. Time to break the corporate grip on Iowa.”
“The inadequacy of animal feeding operations goes back to Right To Farm laws, are created by the people that have the political and financial influence on animal agriculture.”
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Learn how to fight CAFOs in your local community. See the factory farm map of the U.S. here.
- Write to state legislators for strong regulatory action to stop CAFOs.
- Elect new legislators that will protect citizen rights, citizen’s property rights, and are for justice against the animal industry and CAFOs.
- Be your own lobbyist – It’s about citizen politics. Go to your state capital and visit your legislators sharing your story and fight for community health, clean air, water and land.
- Organize community meetings addressing the issues of fighting factory farming. Create change in your community with the people that live in your community.
- Petition for a moratorium in the state on CAFOs.
- Share successful community organizing to other states, towns and localities. There are 200 community groups in the U.S. fighting CAFOs
Film Credits
Film by: Matt Wechsler & Annie Speicher
Executive Producers: Mark Bittman and Kendra Kimbirauskas
Produced by: Hourglass Films
