General

Animal Pharm

One man's struggle to discover the truth about Mad Cow Disease and Variant CJD

by Mark Purdey Review by David Lorimer, December 2010

Published: 2007
Publisher: Clairview Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 276 pp.
ISBN: 9781912992201

Publisher’s description

"Next to weapons of mass destruction, BSE or Mad Cow Disease was the Blair government's biggest scare. Mark Purdey's investigation is urgent, required reading." - John Pilger "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. The Ministry of Agriculture, which for 50 years has enjoyed a dangerously close relationship with the agrochemical industry, has repeatedly sought to discredit him." - George Monbiot 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.

This is the gripping account of Mark Purdey's campaign and the experiences that led him to question the conventional explanation of BSE and CJD. In his view, the main culprit was organophosphate pesticide, after it had been administered to cattle. The official explanation was prions in the feed, but then no organically raised cattle developed BSE, even though they had been exposed to the feed. As frequently happens, Purdey was subjected to a vitriolic media campaign and was accused of being unscientific and lacking in objectivity. All the time, his observations were closely based on the experience of his own animals and an extensive international research programme in which he investigated the hypothesis that toxic environmental factors were a principal cause of BSE and other neurodegenerative diseases. The approach is rigorous and thorough, enabling the reader to come to a balanced judgement. Those with a technical interest can consult his website www.markpurdey.com

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