Mad Cow U.S.A. shatters the false belief that the government and food industry would never let it happen here. Even as tens of thousands of cows died in Britain, the government denied the risk to human beings. Knowing the similar risk in the U.S., government and industry have managed a successful public relations offensive to keep Americans in the dark. Rampton and Stauber expose, for the first time, the deadly game of "dementia roulette" being played with our food supply.
Traces the history of consumers' fear of certain foods beginning with accounts from the fourteenth century, and describes legislative attempts to regulate meat processing in recent years.
Told by the man who kicked off the infamous lawsuit between Oprah and the cattlemen, Mad Cowboy is an impassioned account of the highly dangerous practices of the cattle and dairy industries. Howard Lyman's testimony on The Oprah Winfrey Show revealed the deadly impact of the livestock industry on our well-being. It not only led to Oprah's declaration that she'd never eat a burger again, it sent shock waves through a concerned and vulnerable public. A fourth-generation Montana rancher, Lyman investigated the use of chemicals in agriculture after developing a spinal tumor that nearly paralyzed him. Now a vegetarian, he blasts through the propaganda of beef and dairy interests—and the government agencies that protect them—to expose an animal-based diet as the primary cause of cancer, heart disease, and obesity in this country. He warns that the livestock industry is repeating the mistakes that led to Mad Cow disease in England while simultaneously causing serious damage to the environment. Persuasive, straightforward, and full of the down-home good humor and optimism of a son of the soil, Mad Cowboy is both an inspirational story of personal transformation and a convincing call to action for a plant-based diet—for the good of the planet and the health of us all.
"How the Cows Turned Mad tells the story of a disease that continues to elude on many levels. Yet science has come far in understanding its origins, incubation, and transmission. This book is a case history that illuminates the remarkable progression of science."--BOOK JACKET.
This story of mad cow disease and how it spread is a medical detective story loaded with excitement and mystery. The book looks at what the disease is and how it jumped from animals to humans. Real life case studies make the story come alive. What prions are, how they were discovered, and why they are so dangerous is also discussed in a highly readable manner. In addition, protective measures, future fears, and current research is examined.
When the cattle-borne sickness known as Mad Cow Disease first appeared in America in 2003, authorities were quick to assure the nation that the outbreak was isolated, quarantined, and posed absolutely no danger to the general public. What we were not told was that the origins of the sickness may already have been here and suspected for a quarter of a century. This illuminating exposé of the threat to our nation's health reveals for the first time how Mad Cow Disease (a.k.a. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) has jumped species, infecting humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and may be hidden in the enormous increase in the number of Alzheimer's cases since 1979. Detailing the history and biology of Mad Cow Disease, Brain Trust discloses how an investigation into the mysterious deaths in a group of cannibals in a remote part of the world evolved into a research program in the United States that may have had unforeseen and frightening consequences. The shocking questions examined include: • Have millions of Americans already been exposed to the prions known to cause Mad Cow Disease through years of eating tainted beef? • Does the epidemic of prion disease spreading like wildfire through the nation's deer and elk pose a threat to hunters and venison eaters? • Are the cattle mutilations discovered in the last 30 years part of a covert, illegal sampling program designed to learn how far the deadly prions have spread throughout the nation's livestock and beef products? Exposing the devastating truth about Mad Cow Disease and a new theory of the possible consequences of a little-known government research program and the potential national health catastrophe that may be the result, Brain Trust inoculates Americans with an effective cure: the truth.
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. Those 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 program 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, as well as the poet Ted Hughes, who 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.
A hilarious barnyard tale about big-hearted cow with an even bigger temper, for fans of Penguin Problems. Petal is everything you could want in a cow. She is kind, thoughtful, a great baker and a wonderful artist. She also has a temper. A very big, out-of-control temper. And it doesn't help that her barnyard pals like to push her buttons . . . On the day the farmer announces a fabulous trip to a water park, the horse steps on Petal's foot and she has her biggest tantrum yet. The farmer tells Petal if she doesn't get her temper under control, she won't be able to go to the water park! What else can she do but stomp away in a huff? Then Petal meets a swan who shows her a thing or two about behaving. And not in the way you'd expect . . . This laugh-out-loud story will tickle even the surliest reader, and Petal's outsized tantrums will feel very familiar to parents and kids alike. But like Petal, this story also has a heart of gold and a core of pure warmth.
The announcement that BOSER might cause a fatal human disease "Creutzfeldt- Jacob disease CJD" triggered enormous media attention, public alarm and government wrangling that threatened the future of European integration.; As Scott Ratzan argues: "It is my belief that the [BOSER crisis] represents a quintessential case that will go down in history as the Exxon Valdez Union Carbide's Bhopal accident, and other such cases of interdisciplinary study".; This book offers lessons learned from the crisis, with contributions from experts with different viewpoints - veterinarians, Eurocrats, public relations experts, politicians, policy- makers, journalists and representatives of the beef industry.; It also offers a compilation of the key reports from governmental bodies. as a case-study in policy-making, scientific/health discovery and dissemination of information, as well as looking at the issues from the perspective of psychology and media studies.
Sat in a row in a call centre in an unassuming new build office on the outskirts of Oxford, Barry White, a forty nine year old slightly balding diabetic telephone counsellor, was putting in his usual eight hour shift. Little did he know that his life was going to change forever. Cultivating Mad Cow is a true story that could easily be described as a memoir, but it’s more than that, it’s a story about madness, love, desperation, tragedy and recovery. Rich with comic moments, which against the backdrop of so much despair and anguish makes it both a comical but at the same time a heart-breaking read. New to writing, Kathryn brings a unique unsanitised, voice to tell the profoundly disturbing story of a woman trying to hold it all together, working in child protection and dealing with an unknown serious mental health condition. Things start to go badly wrong when Kathryn goes off work on annual leave and she is unaware she is having a mental health episode. With her wheelie bin going missing and with the new found desire to build phallic objects in her garden and get herself arrested for outlandish and hilarious public disturbances, Kathryn is offered support in the form a telephone counsellor by the name of Barry White. As the weeks progress and with little help on the ground, Kathryn begins to form a romantic attachment to Barry and creates a world where only he and she exist. As Barry writes his case notes, she writes her book. Her increasing need to be near Barry and decreasing inhibitions lead to disaster when she sends him inappropriate material which he shares with his manager, leading to them to terminate all contact between her and Barry. Undeterred by this latest turn of events, she purchases a lighthouse made from resin, throws it in her clapped out Nova, abandons her daughter and sets off to Oxford in search of Barry. When Barry fails to show up in a church which she believed the universe had led her to, she is mortified. The truth that Barry is not telepathically connected to her and that there is no great master plan created by a higher force to bring them together, is too much to bear and she returns home sinking into a darker, more disturbing state. With Barry gone and a career in tatters, she decides to return to work with devastating consequences.
