HOME ON EARTH
FOR
This archive of investigations, reports and interviews below spans from my work with What Doctors Don’t Tell you through my ‘Ecologist years’ to some of my more recent work (see also my Blogs page) with other publications and from the NYR Natural News website, which I edit and Beyond GM campaign and its associated websites.
It does not include the large body of feature work which I did as a music journalist – work I am equally proud of but which came before the internet made archiving easier!
What Doctors Don’t Tell you re-wrote the book on how journalists should approach health. Instead of rewriting press releases, blindly following the latest fads or relying on rent-a-quote experts, the team immersed itself in the medical journalist that Doctors were – or should have been – reading. These often tell a very different story to the PR that filters through to the media about modern pharmaceuticals. I was a contributing editor at WDDTY for nearly a decade and editor of Proof! – the consumer magazine that grew out of the work we did there.
The Ecologist magazine, founded in 1970, was the world’s oldest and most widely read environment magazine. It was a driving force in major environmental campaigns against climate change, toxic chemicals in household products, rainforest destruction, food additives, genetic modification and much more. Its courageous, in-depth journalism provided early-warning signs for all the environmental challenges we face now and was, for decades, hugely influential in setting the environmental and green political agendas in the UK and elsewhere. The New York Review of Magazines called it “A magazine that changes people’s lives”. I was privileged to be its Health Editor and then Editor for several years before it ceased printing in 2009 and have continued to contribute ad hoc to it’s website.
My interest in a less interventionist, more natural approach to health continues to this day. NYR Natural News is the only alternative health website based in the UK. It has a growing UK and international audience of people who want good information on health alternatives and who want to understand the connections between environment and health. It is also an increasingly powerful voice in environment and GM campaigning, exposing the toxic connections between multinational corporations and political policy and their impact on human well-being.
Recently a UK analysis of the benefits for newly licensed cancer drugs dropped a bombshell. The research, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that nearly two thirds (57%) of cancer drugs authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) between 2009 and 2013 were approved without any clear evidence they improved the quality or […]
In a week when the world has watched as man-made climate change whip up spectacular, scary, damaging weather – along with continued and ridiculous debate – two stories have emerged that underscore the links between food, farming and climate change. We ignore them at our peril. In the early days of our awareness of climate […]
These are stressful times The effect on our mental and physical well-being from life events such as divorce, a death in the family, money worries, dysfunctional relationships and job pressures are all well researched. Less well studied – though maybe someone should – are the geographical and sociopolitical stresses we all face: climate change certainly, […]
Yesterday a blow was struck for both press freedom and health freedom too. A project called the Poison Papers makes available to the public decades of newly digitised data on the dangers of industrial chemicals – and the practices of the companies that make them. Most of the documents – which include scientific studies and […]
You can hardly open a newspaper these days without seeing reports about the devastating state of our oceans, in particular from plastic pollution. Microplastics contribute up to 30% of the ‘plastic soup’ polluting the world’s oceans. In developed countries they can be a bigger source of marine plastic pollution than plastic waste. This form of […]
Of all the subjects in health and medicine, the link between what goes on in our guts and what goes on in the rest of our bodies is arguably one of the most exciting. Exciting not only because it suggests a more subtle and complex network inside of us – something we are only beginning […]
Most of us associate flowers with beauty and nature. The Victorians even had a language of flowers: bluebells for kindness, peonies meant bashfulness, rosemary was for remembrance, wallflowers represented faithfulness in adversity – and the red rose, true love. But that was yesterday. This is today when the cut flower world is far from romantic […]
They say what we do to the bees we do to ourselves. Equally, it seems that what we do to ourselves we are more than happy to carelessly inflict on any other living thing, including our bees. If bees are in decline it’s not due to some unexplained phenomena. It’s due to human activity; and […]
Why do farmers use pesticides? Many will tell you that it is to reduce crop losses due to a wide variety of pests including weeds, insects and fungi. Reducing crop losses equals more food for the farmer to sell and more for us to eat. In a world of climate change and population explosion this […]
You are what you eat, as the saying goes, and while good dietary choices boost your own health, they also could improve the health care system and even benefit the planet. Healthier people mean not only less disease but also reduced greenhouse gas emissions from health care. As it turns out, some relatively small diet […]
I am an award-winning campaigner, journalist and author. A former editor of the Ecologist magazine Pat has run campaigns for Paul McCartney’s Meat-Free Monday, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and Neal’s Yard Remedies. In 2011, my work leading the campaign, Cows Belong in Fields, won CIWF the Observer Ethical Award for Campaigner of the Year. In 2014 I co-founded the campaigning group, Beyond GM.
I am a qualified psychotherapist and the author more than 40 books for adults and children and I was inducted into Who’s Who in 2014. In addition to my work with Beyond GM, I work occasionally with the film production company Ecostorm. I also currently edit and oversee NYR Natural News – a campaigning natural health website, continue to write in a freelance capacity and make regular public speaking and media appearances.
I have been a trustee of both the Soil Association and the Organic Research Centre in the UK and am currently on the advisory board of GMO Free USA and am a trustee of the investigative media agency, Eyewitness.
To read more about me see here.
Skype: patti.t16
I am interested in and available for short- and long-term projects/consultancies, and am particularly keen on those that focus on food, sustainability and culture change. I am also an experienced public speaker.
My unique professional experience means I bring a variety of skills to any work I do, including effective and persuasive communication and writing skills, an holistic perspective on sustainability and change, and both intuitive and analytical ability. I am well known in my field and comfortable working in most fora.
Recent projects/consultancies include work with: Stella McCartney ‘Care’ range, Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Monday, Friends of the Earth, Compassion in World Farming, Soil Association, Neal’s Yard Remedies.
Recent public speaking engagements: UK Aware, Oxford University PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) Society, Durham Union Society (Durham University), Bristol Festival of Nature, World Preservation Foundation, Women’s Institute.
Please feel free to contact me by email: howlatthemoon@live.co.uk
Laura Longrigg
MBA Literary Agents
62 Grafton Way
London W1T 5DW
Tel: 020 7387 2076
Email: laura@mbalit.co.uk
I'm a highly experienced journalist and award winning campaigner specialising in environment and alternative health. I'm also the author of several books for adults and children and a qualified psychotherapist.
