A River of Waste

Factory farms across the United States produce more waste than most cities, and this film tracks where it actually goes. It opens with the history of how livestock production consolidated into massive confined operations, then follows the waste lagoons, manure sprayfields, and runoff that residents near these facilities live with every day. Interviews with farmers, doctors, and people whose water wells turned foul sit alongside footage of pig and poultry operations and the rivers and streams downstream from them. The film lays out the health complaints tied to nearby communities, from respiratory problems to contaminated drinking water, and examines why regulators have struggled to hold corporate agriculture accountable, pointing to industry lobbying and weak enforcement of environmental law. Scientists explain what is actually in the waste, including antibiotics and pathogens, and what happens when it reaches waterways. The film treats factory farming as a policy failure with a paper trail, not just an eyesore, and it closes on the gap between what regulations exist and what actually gets enforced.