Mark Purdey's life changed one day in 1984 when a Ministry of Agriculture inspector told him he must administer a toxic organophosphate pesticide to his dairy herd. Passionately committed to organic farming and convinced of the harmful effects of chemicals in the environment, he refused to comply. 'It was as if my whole life became focused', he explained later. Before they had a chance to prosecute, Purdey took the Ministry to court and won his case. These experiences led him to challenge the orthodox line on the origins of Mad Cow Disease and its human counterpart variant CJD. Could the insecticide used in the official programme have precipitated the spread of the disease?Purdey's quest to discover the truth was hampered at every turn by government bureaucracies and self-serving scientific cliques who sought to smear and marginalize him. Dogged by dirty tricks and forced to work alone as something of a scientific sleuth, he struggled to reveal hidden interests and dangerous secrets. His supporters included many members of the public, as well as Prince Charles and the poet Ted Hughes. The latter wrote to him expressing 'a million congratulations'.Increasingly sceptical of the official narrative, Purdey was certain that toxic environmental factors would provide answers, and so embarked on a self-funded worldwide odyssey to investigate. "Animal Pharm" follows him on these eco-detective trails to locations as diverse as Iceland, Sardinia, Colorado and Australia. Purdey uncovers contamination from industry, munitions, pesticides, nuclear experiments and natural geology, linking these with the emergence of a range of neurodegenerative diseases. His research is at once compelling and disturbing, helping to create a paradigm shift in our understanding of the relationship of pollutants to disease and health.
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"If Purdey is right, he deserves a Nobel Prize for medicine. Instead he has been shot at, his phone lines have been cut and his house has been burnt down." -- George Monbiot, author of Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning
"Mark Purdey's investigation is urgent, required reading." -- John Pilger, journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker
"Mark Purdey's investigation is urgent, required reading." -- John Pilger, journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker
About the Author
MARK PURDEY, born in 1953, turned down a university place to start his own organic farm at the age of 19. In the late 1980s he started to teach himself neurobiology and in the mid-1990s began worldwide field research to discover the truth behind BSE, CJD and other neurodegenerative diseases. He was a vociferous campaigner on these issues making TV programmes, publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals and lecturing at many prestigious institutions. He died in November 2006 of a brain tumour and is survived by his wife and eight children.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing information,
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This review is from: Animal Pharm: One Man’s Struggle to Discover the Truth about Mad Cow Disease and Variant CJD (Paperback)
If you read any book to find out more about Mad Cow disease, read this one. This guy offers a very in-depth, scientific, and fitting theory to explain Mad Cow and related neuro-degenerative diseases. He fuses several different scientific and academic disciplines in his attempt to take the mystery out of Mad Cow disease with first-hand, peer-reviewed research, and submits that it is rather a combination of several different factors that cause Mad Cow and variant-CJD; primarily a lack of trace elements in the body that are essential to the brain's blood-barrier defense, then followed by, simply put, heavy metal poisoning of the brain.
He studied clustered cases of CJD and Mad Cow around the world and discovered that at every location in which more than one case appeared in a locality, there was also a source of metal contaminant pollution nearby - often, he noted, upwind of the outbreak location - such as military munitions factories and disposal sites, and manganese mine and quarry outfits. This book made a lot of sense to me with its truckload of scientific facts and figures, and has inspired me to take an interest (and maybe someday pursue further education) in possible chemical explanations of similar brain diseases.
5.0 out of 5 stars
absolutely brilliant,
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This review is from: Animal Pharm: One Man’s Struggle to Discover the Truth about Mad Cow Disease and Variant CJD (Paperback)
This book should be required reading for every meat eater on the planet. Purdey died much too young just a few years ago, and one must wonder (after the other mysterious deaths that occurred as he was investigating the link between mad cow and pesticides) just how much good he could have done if he had lived. Purdey's research is no doubt extremely unpopular with the mega-corporations that make the pesticides and the governments that rubber stamp them. All the more reason to arm yourself with this knowledge. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Animal Pharm,
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This review is from: Animal Pharm: One Man’s Struggle to Discover the Truth about Mad Cow Disease and Variant CJD (Paperback)
This book sets out a logical explaination for TSEs. Much of the present policies and popular expalation for scrapie in sheep has been
extapulated from research on lab animals. How scrapie behaves under natural circumstances is not the same as in lab animals. Yet the present polcy is driven by the lab results. The tracking of cases of Mad Cow certainly supports the enviromental influences.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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veterinary establishment, metal microcrystals, airborne manganese, manganese intoxication, shock bursts, cluster zones, prion protein, manganese levels, warble fly, high manganese Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
World War, Groote Eylandt, Fort Collins, North America, East Goscote, Cocus Island, New Guinea, South Pacific, Emerald River Mission, Front Range, Rocky Flats, Wickett Hern Road, Institute of Psychiatry, New Mexico, Clare Tomkins, Stephen Churchill, Warren Lalara, Foxden Woods, Ernie Lalara, Four Corners, White Sands, Mud Cod Bay Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
veterinary establishment, metal microcrystals, airborne manganese, manganese intoxication, shock bursts, cluster zones, prion protein, manganese levels, warble fly, high manganese Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
World War, Groote Eylandt, Fort Collins, North America, East Goscote, Cocus Island, New Guinea, South Pacific, Emerald River Mission, Front Range, Rocky Flats, Wickett Hern Road, Institute of Psychiatry, New Mexico, Clare Tomkins, Stephen Churchill, Warren Lalara, Foxden Woods, Ernie Lalara, Four Corners, White Sands, Mud Cod Bay Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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