Interview: Guildford vegan activists, Monica and Andy Lilley

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PETA

Aside from running marathons, Guildford lad Andy Lilley has his biggest challenge ahead – converting the world to veganism. Emily Horton finds out more 

Move over Beyoncé with your new vegan home delivery service, there’s a new kid on the block advocating the virtues of a life without animal products.

Enter Guildford’s Andy Lilley. He may not have those eye candy curves or international adoration, but with his Guildhall talk earlier this year, Guildford: The Power of Your Vegan Plate, and inspired by his mum Monica, he is leading the clarion call to a life sans meat.

 Forgive me my prejudices, but I’ve generally associated veganism with anaemic-looking hippies whose appetites are somehow satisfied with a couple of drab pieces of lettuce. But when I meet the former Royal Grammar School schoolboy at the family home on Pewley Hill, fresh from his second marathon of the year (with a time of just two hours 41 minutes) he doesn’t quite fit that mould. 

 Andy, a 29-year-old financial consultant in pensions, is a cheery and enthusiastic soul:  

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Andy Lilley on his way to a marathon personal best thanks to his veganism

 “On vegan diet, the body recovers better after exercise. I can run for longer, put on muscle quicker and the fat stays off.”

 Surely he’s not sustained by this rabbit food alone, I ask?

 “Haven’t you heard of Deliciously Ella?” he retorts, laughing: “Get her recipe book pronto!” Ah yes, I think, 23-year-old Ella Woodward who amazed doctors in curing herself of a rare congenital disease by cleaning up her diet and becoming vegan. Her model good looks and chocolate beetroot brownies have spawned a food guru.

“With a bit of time and research, a vegan diet can be absolutely delicious, varied and nutritious. Why wouldn’t you want to embrace it when animal products are proven to increase rates of cancer, heart disease, dementia...?” he asks. 

 “You don’t need to go on stressful detoxes and diet fads. If you don’t eat meat and dairy, you’ll be slimmer, have a stronger immune system, live longer and feel better.”

Thanks to organisations such as PETA and its celebrity campaigns featuring the likes of Pamela Anderson, rugby player Danny Cipriani and Les Miserables actress Samantha Barks, veganism is opening up to the mainstream.

Andy has been a vegan intermittently since the age of 12, when his mum, Monica, became convinced of its virtues and introduced it to the family diet. He has lapsed a few times and reverted to vegetarianism, but the last four years have seen him cement his resolve that the vegan life is better for you.

 “I lived in Spain where it was hard to be a vegan. I felt very lethargic, I looked bloated and I simply didn’t feel as good. Then I had an eureka moment where someone sent me a video clip about the shocking treatment of animals. I thought to myself, I just cannot continue to support an industry which treats living beings like this.”

Social responsibility is at the heart of his veganism: “Cattle rearing in particular is the single most damaging activity to our ecosystem. It is resource-intensive, taking precious water supplies, land and financial resources away from starving, needy populations.”

“The competition to produce inexpensive meat, eggs and dairy products has led to animals being treated as nothing more than commodities. Each year, billions of cows, pigs, chickens turkeys and fish – each capable of experiencing happiness, joy, loneliness and frustration, are killed to satisfy our appetite for animal products.”

A controversial statement in a world where eating animal products has been normal practice for many thousands of years?

 “Might is not necessarily right,” Andy replies. “I see animals as sentient beings. After all, we pamper our pets, so why are we so callous with farm animals?”

Why, I ask, are we not adopting veganism in our droves? “For about 90 per cent of people, it’s laziness to keep to a diet which is not as readily available. Taste is a powerful factor, most people simply enjoy eating meat.”

A topic for discussion in schools, I suggest? This is very much Monica’s domain. At 65, she has been a long-time educational campaigner for veganism since she took up the diet at the relatively late age of 47.

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Monica and Andy Lilley

 “I campaign all the time, I see it as my job,” she tells me. “Understandably, a lot of people are very touchy, no one likes to confront unpleasant realities.”

“People struggle to enter into a discussion about it because perhaps to do so is to acknowledge that animals can be very intelligent, sentient beings and they suffer immeasurably.”

In schools veganism is occasionally discussed, says Monica, but rarely from the perspective of the treatment of animals. During Andy’s presentation at the Guildhall this spring – a presentation now on YouTube – he showed a PETA film with footage of animals being slaughtered. What I see is enough to put me off my dinner. What is most upsetting, however, is to learn about the methods of artificial insemination of animals: ‘rape rack’ is the term Monica uses to refer to the practice of artificially inseminating pigs. 

Does this happen with organic farming? I ask, aghast. “Still standard practice,” she confirms. 

They are a forthright pair, passionate and convinced of the vegan mission. Monica in particular has been criticised for her controversial views. “But let’s get this into perspective,’ she reminds me. “A few middle class people having to change their diet is not a hardship. Facing war and famine indirectly caused by cattle farming, that’s hard, but not changing your diet.”

And with that, I’m off to dust off my running shoes – I’m already looking forward to being alive at 90...I know Andy sure is.

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Watch 'The Power of Your Vegan Plate, Guildford' on Youtube.com and an interview with Monica, about how she was arrested for her veganism beliefs here

Read this article and more in July's issue of the Guildford, Woking and Farnham Magazine