Concept Research - Director

As director of Dead in the Water, I've been researching the topic of CAFOs for about a year and a half now. I started my research with an internship at Cape Fear River Watch, a local environmental nonprofit. From there, I directed Concentration, which taught me so much both about documentary filmmaking and more about the issue. After that, I spent a semester pre-producing Dead in the Water, which gave me the opportunity to organize my thoughts, prepare for the project, and get feedback from other filmmakers about where to go from Concentration. 

Now, I've been able to outline the course I want Dead in the Water to take this semester. Other documentaries and media outlets have jumped on the issue of CAFOs in North Carolina as well as the environmental impact of the waste. For example, the documentaries Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret and What the Health (both made by the same filmmakers) address animal agriculture, wherein What the Health addresses Duplin County directly. Recently, a Vice episode called "Meathooked" was also released and features Kemp Burdette and Duplin County. While I'm happy that this issue is gaining media attention, I do not want to repeat what they have done.

The documentaries mentioned above are not solely about North Carolina. Rather, the state is mentioned for a few minutes at a time. However, I believe change starts at a local level—like a ripple effect. Thus, I am excited to use Dead in the Water to look at the CAFO industry in North Carolina more extensively in order to make a change in NC before spreading this movement beyond the state. Since NC has the highest concentration of factory farms on planet earth, it makes sense to start here. Dead in the Water can help do this.

My outline for the film is as follows (of course, things are subject to change):

OPENING
-Establish North Carolina as setting
-Highlight the Cape Fear River and why it is important to the global ecosystem as well as North Carolinians (largest river in NC, puts out directly into the ocean, source of drinking water)
TRANSITION
-Introduce Kemp Burdette
-What is a CAFO?
-Establish that the Cape Fear River basin is home to the largest concentration of factory farms on planet earth
-How does the waste move to nearby bodies of water?
-What happens to the water when the waste comes in contact?
-Introduce Dr. Larry Cahoon
-How much waste is coming from the farms to the river?
-How much of the nutrients within the waste is good versus bad?
-People don't know about these farms because they are hidden and concentrated in rural counties
TRANSITION
-Establish Duplin County
-Introduce Rene Miller
-Rene's story/experience living across the street from a hog farm
-Introduce Elsie Herring
-Elsie's story/experience living near a hog farm in Wallace, NC
-Introduce migrant farm and packing plant workers
-Their story/experience of working within the farm and the Smithfield packing plant
TRANSITION
-Establish Smithfield packing plant in Tar Heel, NC
-Introduce Marion Blackburn
-Why aren't there tighter regulations in place for these farms?
-What kinds of efforts are in place to counterattack efforts to expose the environmental impacts of the farms?
-How much revenue does the pork industry bring to the NC economy annually?
-Introduce Ken Sullivan (or a Smithfield representative willing to comment)
-Why does Smithfield want to reduce GHG emissions by 25% by 2025?
-How do they plan to do so without cutting down on animal production or diverting waste management practices?
-How does Smithfield farms currently dispose of waste?
-Are the current practices safe?
TRANSITION
-Establish Kemp Burdette in lab testing water quality samples
-What is Kemp finding in the water sample from the river?
-What does this mean for water quality and public health?
-Is our drinking water safe? - Yes, but that does not mean we can pollute and treat everything out.
-What can we do to improve upon this issue?
-CALL TO ACTION
TRANSITION
-Possible solutions: speak to policy makers, support water quality agencies, stop eating meat/dairy
-Uplifting and hopeful quotes from experts throughout

Below are sources I've reviewed for research within the last year:

Burdette, Kemp. "The Black River Is Not 'Pristine'." Waterkeeper.org. Waterkeeper Alliance, 1 Feb. 2016. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Burdette, Kemp. "Black River Still at Risk, Hog Industry Still Peddling Deception." Waterkeeper.org. Waterkeeper Alliance, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Burdette, Kemp. "Kemp Burdette and CAFOs." Personal interview. 7 Nov. 2016.

Cahoon, Lawrence. "Dr. Lawrence Cahoon and CAFOs." Personal interview. 24 Oct. 2016.

Cahoon, Lawrence. "Dr. Cahoon Follow-Up." Personal interview. 14 Nov. 2016.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding CAFOs and Their Impact on Communities. Bowling Green, Ohio: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010. Cdc.org. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret. Dir. Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn. Perf. Kip Andersen. A.U.M. Films, First Spark Media, 2014. Netflix.

Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan. Magnolia Pictures, 2008. Netflix.

Humane Society. "Ag-Gag Laws." Humanesociety.org. Humane Society of the United States, 2017. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Imhoff, Daniel, ed. CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories. N.p.: Earth Aware Editions, 2010. Print.

Isaacs, Justin, Wendy Strangman, Amy Barbera, Michael Mallin, Matthew McIver, and Jeffrey Wright. "Microcystins and Two New Micropeptin Cyanopeptides Produced by Unprecedented Microcystis Aeruginosa Blooms in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River." Elsevier (2014): 82-86. Uncw.edu. UNC Wilmington Center for Marine Science, 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Kilborn, Peter. "Hurricane Reveals Flaws in Farm Law as Animal Waste Threatens N. Carolina Water." Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 17 Oct. 1999. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Lacy, Sara. “HARD TO WATCH: HOW AG-GAG LAWS DEMONSTRATE THE NEED FOR FEDERAL MEAT AND POULTRY INDUSTRY WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS.” Administrative Law Review, vol. 65, no. 1, 2013, pp. 127–154. www.jstor.org/stable/41805957.

McAdams, Ann. "Floodwaters Could Breach Hog Waste Lagoons, Contaminate Rivers." Wect.com. Raycom Media, 11 Oct. 2016. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

NC Farm Families. "The Attack." Ncfarmfamilies.com. NC Farm Families, 2015. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Pontius, Frederick W. “Legislation/Regulation: CAFO Regulations Revised.” Journal (American Water Works Association), vol. 101, no. 1, 2009, pp. 16–19. www.jstor.org/stable/41313435.

Ross, Kirk, and Darryl Fears. "Flooded North Carolina Farms Are Likely Littered with Drowned Livestock." Washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post, 12 Oct. 2016. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

Waterkeeper Alliance. "Waterkeeper Alliance and North Carolina Riverkeepers Respond to Hurricane Matthew Flooding in North Carolina." Waterkeeper.org. Waterkeeper Alliance, 11 Oct. 2016. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

WECT Admin. "Toxic Blue-green Algae Found in Cape Fear River." Wect.com. Raycom Media, 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

Wing, Steve, et al. “The Potential Impact of Flooding on Confined Animal Feeding Operations in Eastern North Carolina.” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 110, no. 4, 2002, pp. 387–391. www.jstor.org/stable/3455218.