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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.
Biotech developers in the EU are lobbying hard to rewrite or remove regulations intended to protect consumers and the environment. With a little ‘help’ from the White House and – thanks to an apathetic mainstream media – a lack of public awareness, they could succeed. Tied up in a pretty bow of feeding the hungry […]
‘Bioengineering’ nutrients into our food – a promise which so far has failed to materialise – distracts us from real issues of soil degradation, climate change, poor diet choices and lack of political will to support a right to food.
An experiment in feeding farmed salmon GM feed is underway in the highlands of Scotland – and you should be worried. The BBC news, naturally, was the first to trumpet the benefits of the GMO experiment, claiming that the aim of the trial was to increase the nutritional value of the fish and that a […]
The EU has failed – once again – to agree on how to proceed with the relicensing of glyphosate, the active ingredient which underpins Roundup, the world’s most widely used herbicide. Yesterday representatives of Member States in the European Council voted on a proposal, put forward by the European Commission, to relicense glyphosate for a […]
In a series of tests on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream sold in the UK and EU, worrying levels of glyphosate were found. Here’s what that means – and how Ben & Jerry’s responded and why you shouldn’t be too hopeful.
It’s one of the most depressing aspects of environmentalism that pressing needs for change inevitably get turned into saleable products. As the need to reduce our meat consumption rises so too do the number of so-called ‘meat substitutes’, products which aim to get us to eat less meat while still pretending that we are eating […]
Forget reality shows. For anyone interested in the future of food – and really the future of the entire planet – the corporate theatre of the mega-merger is proving to be compelling stuff. This week Monsanto confirmed a record-breaking $66bn takeover of its GM seeds business by rival Bayer. The deal – if it is allowed to […]
With young people speaking up and becoming more aware of food, health and environmental issues, they deserve the platform to voice their concerns and join in a wider global network of youth working for positive change in the world they will inherit. Our Food Our Future is asking kids in the Americas to send in […]
“It was 20 years ago today…” as the song goes – and in many ways the sparkly side-show that is genetically modified food is as lacking in substance as the eternal showmen of Sgt Pepper’s band. On this day in 1996 the first GM product – a tomato puree made from the Flavr Savr tomato […]
The pro-GM bias of the BBC was plain to see during Monday’s (8th June) Panorama programme. Blinkered and narrow rather than panoramic, selective and prejudicial rather than investigative, this sorry display set a new low for a programme which was once a flagship of investigative journalism. It had no more veracity and insight than the […]
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
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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.
