2011-12-01

Pat Thomas (Journalist)




Pat Thomas (Journalist)

Pat Thomas (born 1959, California) is an author, journalist and campaigner specialising in the field of environment and health. She qualified as a transpersonal psychotherapist in 1991 at the Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling Education in London. She lives in London, England. Through her writing she has built a reputation for challenging assumptions of science and culture.

Career

Thomas was an early campaigner for evidence-based healthcare. Her early books concentrated on providing information to women who wished to have safe, non-interventionist births. During the time she was Editor of the AIMS Journal, the quarterly magazine of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (AIMS).

In 1992 she began writing for the newsletter , produced by the independent publisher Wallace Press. She moved on to become an editor there and for 12 years was one of its most prolific contributors. In 2003 she became editor of its sister-publication, the consumer magazine Proof!, to which she had been contributing since its inception in 1996. During this time she also contributed regularly to another Wallace Press title, Natural Parent.

In 2004 she began writing the Behind the Label column, which exposed risky chemicals in everyday products, for the Ecologist magazine. In 2005 she became the Ecologist’s Health Editor and authored some of the magazine's most widely read feature investigations.

By 2007 Thomas had been appointed editor of the Ecologist magazine, a position she held until June 2009 when the print magazine switched to a online format. As editor of the Ecologist she spearheaded its campaigns, acted as its public face in the media and helped established the Ecologist Film Unit with film partners, the international investigations agency, Ecostorm. She was also responsible for a major redesign of the magazine. She continued to write the popular Behind the Label column until January 2011.

Post Ecologist she went on to become Campaign Director for Paul McCartney's Meat Free Monday campaign, helping to launch and establish the campaign in the UK. Under her direction the campaign took founder Paul McCartney to a special plenary session of the European Parliament to speak about the health and environmental benefits of reducing the amount of meat in the typical Western diet. The event in December 2009 was broadcast around the world via the internet.

In 2010 Thomas became Campaign Manager for the Cows Belong in Fields campaign at Compassion in World Farming. The campaign aimed to stop the UK’s first mega-dairy in the village of Nocton, Lincolnshire, where a planned 8000 high-yielding cows would be reared indoors, on the grounds of risks to animal welfare and the local environment. Nocton Dairies withdrew its plans in February 2011 after overwhelming objections from campaigners, the public, local authorities and the UK’s Environment Agency.

In 2010 Thomas was also the host of Deep Fried Planet, a weekly radio programme on London’s Resonance FM. She also researched and wrote the report Healthy Planet Eating which outlined the health and environmental case for eating less meat, for environmental campaigning group Friends of the Earth.

In 2011 she became involved in sustainability and web-based projects with Neal's Yard Remedies, one of the UK's leading organic health and beauty companies. One of these projects is the natural health website NYR Natural News.

She has also produced a web-based tool called Infrequently Asked Questions, which encourages users to ask more in-depth questions about cultural and personal issues.

Over the course of her career Thomas has written many books for adults and children.

Her work has been featured in, and she has written on a wide range of topics for, publications such as the Guardian newspaper, the Independent newspaper, Here’s Health, Top Santé, Health & Fitness, Geographical magazine and Caduceus.

She is frequently on national and local TV and radio. She has been a regular guest on Anna Raeburn’s Talk Radio programme and featured on BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth and makes regular appearances on programmes for the BBC, ITV, Radio 5 Live, Sky news, RTE, Carlton, Ireland AM, Granada Talk TV, LBC, the World Service and others.

Accolades

June 2011 – The Cows Belong in Fields campaign won Compassion in World Farming the Observer Ethical Award 2011 for Campaigner of the Year, by public vote following a publicity drive by Compassion in World Farming to their email lists.

October 2007 – the London Evening Standard identified Thomas as one of the 1000 most influential people in London.

September 2002 – Thomas' book Your Birth Rights was listed at one of the 50 Best Books for New Parents by the Independent newspaper.

1998 – Thomas’s children’s book My Family’s Changing – A First Look at Divorce won the English Association’s Best Picture Book, non-fiction, for ages 4–7.

Books

Thomas has written numerous books for both adults and children. Her books have been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Greek, Japanese, Dutch and Turkish.

For adults

Reports

Booklets/Guides

As a contributor

References

External links


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