permaculture

["Emily A. Noble" <guinep@theriver.com>]

Title: What's for dinner?

"BSE: a new line?" page 8 of THE ECOLOGIST (UK), volume 30, #3/May 2000
"Everyone knows the official line on BSE: that the disease was caused by feeding infected sheep and cattle remains to cows. But a British farmer has a different theory; one that the powers that be are going to great lengths to silence. Mark Purdey, of Somerset, believes that BSE isn't caused by infected meat protein at all, but by the use of organophosphate insecticides, which British farmers have been legally obliged to apply to their cattle twice a year since 1982 as a warble fly deterrent. It all started when Purdey noticed that his own organically reared cows, that he refysed to treat with organophosphates, never developed BSE, whilst treated cattle brought onto the farm did. He decided to investigate. Soon, he noticed a pattern. He found that the only counties besides Britain to suffer from BSE epidemics were those in which organophosphates had been used. On the other hand, the Middle East, that had imported thousands of tons of Britain's allegedly infectious cattle feed, had no BSE. For Purdey, the assumption that one animal has to eat another in order to catch the same disease doesn't make sense. For it that is the case, how do you explain the lifelong vegetarian that contracted nvCJD in France? Scrapie-infected sheep don't eat each other. Neither do the wild populations of deer in the Rocky Mountains who have contracted chronic wasting disease (the BSE equivalent in deer).
Surely, the more likely explanation is that 'the various different species of mammals suffering from the same disease have all been exposed to the same causal factor in the environment,' says Purdey. But it is an explanation that the British government seems unwilling to explore. Purdey's findings have been dismissed by the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH)- a lobby group representing the UK animal medicine industry. In a recent BSE enquiry report, they say Purdey's facts 'do not add up; and that clinical trials carried out by independent experts show no link between OP use and BSE. But Purdey claims the group has 'twisted the truth,; and points out that NOAH's quoted 'independent expert', Dr. David Ray, has received funding from organophosphate manufacturers Zeneca. 'If organophosphates can be proved to have caused BSE, their worldwide use could be put into jeopardy, costing the chemical industry billions. The government knows more than they're letting on,' says Purdey........" [here in USA there has been a lot of publicity lately on Parkinsons Disease because of Michael Fox (actor) and Janet Reno having it. Somewhere I read or heard on radio that it is suspected that it might be caused by exposure to pesticide(s)]