SaveFarmFamilies.org announced this week the launch of a promotional campaign for its upcoming documentary on the environmental activist lawsuit against the Hudson Family Farm and the continuing threat that misguided efforts by environmental extremists pose to family farmers, not just in Maryland but across the nation, according to a press release.

 The documentary–Collateral Damage: Farm Families–reviews the questionable political and academic actions that enabled the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance to push forward with its lawsuit against the Hudson family, even after the Maryland Department of the Environment reviewed and rejected the Waterkeepers’ allegations of chicken manure pollution at the farm. The film also contains interviews with a wide variety of members of Maryland’s agricultural community and outside observers, who speak to the emotional toll on Alan Hudson and his family as well as the broader damage done to the relationship between farmers and responsible environmental groups.

 “Unfortunately, the Hudson lawsuit has made farmers wary of cooperating with government or conservation groups,” said Chuck Fry, Maryland Farm Bureau President. “Extremists like the Waterkeepers are actually hampering efforts to find the middle ground in the discussion over preserving both the Bay and farm viability.”

 “The introduction of the Poultry Fair Share Act, Maryland legislation to place a five cent per bird tax on every chicken placed in Maryland chicken houses, shows that groups inside and outside of government are still pursuing their anti-modern agriculture, anti-poultry agenda,” said Bill Satterfield, Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. “It’s important that groups like Save Farm Families continue to remind not only the farming community but the larger community about the damage that could be done not just to one farm family, but to many, many farm families if Big Environment is successful.”

The documentary reveals the motives and relationships behind the failed Waterkeeper Alliance lawsuit against a fourth-generation Maryland family farm. Their strategy was unveiled at the 2007 Waterkeeper Alliance Poultry Summit by speakers Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Attorney General Doug Gansler and Dr. Jane Barrett of the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic. Over the next five years, a Maryland family farm was pushed close to bankruptcy and had their lives upended.

The promotional campaign includes a 60-second trailer airing on cable stations in many of Maryland’s farm communities and promoted across commonly used digital platforms such as YouTube. The trailer may also be viewed at www.savefarmfamilies.org.

Screenings of the documentary film are planned for this summer and fall at meetings of supporters from Maryland’s farm community. The film will also be showcased digitally at SaveFarmFamilies.org. SaveFarmFamilies.org chose to release the trailer in the days leading up to Father’s Day to highlight the efforts of Alan Hudson as a father trying to protect his family and his family’s farm.

The documentary film and the promotion effort have been underwritten by SaveFarmFamilies.org as part of its continuing education campaign about the dangerous activities of extremist litigious environmental groups such as the Waterkeeper Alliance. A significant portion of the funding came from court costs received from the Waterkeepers.