‘Something is wrong when chicken and chips is cheaper than a salad’ – Dame Joanna Lumley 

Last Friday, Joanna Lumley was back at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford talking about the love she has for all life, the challenges we face and reasons for hope.

I was honoured to be in conversation with her.  She has been an unwaivering and committed Patron for Compassion in World Farming for over 35 years.  Standing up for animals at every opportunity, with a sleeves-rolled-up, no nonsense approach and a unique gift for delivering hard hitting messages without preaching, and with sensitivity and wit.

Joanna, needed little introduction, being so well known for being a truly great actress, an author, a national treasure and animal activist.  And for having the biggest heart and doing wonderful work to create a better world – for example, Joanna’s championing of the Gurka Justice Campaign.  

I therefore needed to share only a few images with the audience to help show Joanna’s love for farmed animals: being locked in a cage with All Creatures Great and Small actor, Christopher Timothy and singer, Lyndsey de Paul, to demonstrate the plight of battery hens back in the early 90’s and taking a piglet called Babe to Westminster to remind our MPs of the need to recognise animal sentience. These were two of the many campaigns and actions she has supported us with.  Plus of course, her kind support for the book, Farmageddon, the first book to recognise the true cost of cheap, industrially produced meat.

Before I could ask a question, the delightful Joanna told the audience that fame was of no importance at all, but being famous meant that it was useful to encourage the media to speak out about the injustice and the abuse of animals.  

She went on to add that she simply wanted to hang out with the ‘Compassion tribe’ and be a part of their campaigns to stop the cruelty about the way animals are kept in factory farms and the way they are slaughtered.  

Noting that she hasn’t eaten meat since she was 35 years old, Joanna told those present that she has always had a passion for animals “since the year dot”.

Early on, Joanna had this feeling of a massive injustice that has been going on throughout the centuries; that humans felt elevated above other beings.  

”We’ve gone wrong” she added “in poorer countries meat and fish are treasured as valuable and precious things to be respected and eaten very sparingly but in wealthier countries, we glut on them and chuck bits away.  It was for this reason I wanted to join Compassion and in any small way, I might be able to help.”

We went onto talk about Joanna’s work and her disgust for animal experimentation and she gave the example of making animals swim until near death to understand how humans might react: “how unbelievably cruel is that” she said. 

Joanna reflected on the cruelty involved in the trade in live animal exports from Britain which, following a long campaign by us and our partners, has now been banned.

“ These little creatures taken away from their homes, travelling with broken legs, bones, unfed, unwatered, travelling hideously long distances, then either fattened or slaughtered.  One knows that this is unacceptable, you don’t have to be very clever, or over think it, or think about trade.  We know this to be cruel and wicked.  I think most people think like this.  Sometimes you’ll be the only voice, sometimes people will throw tomatoes at you, but you stand up!”

When I asked Joanna how she felt now about animal welfare and sustainability, she said honestly that it can feel like two steps forward and two steps back: “You see all the scientists and all the doctors say don’t eat too much meat, have a plant-based diet that is better for you and the planet. I feel ashamed that we live here in the western world, and we abuse and waste the precious resources that we have.”

I went on to ask what gave Joanna hope that things are and will get better for animals:  ”When one sees gorgeous films like Blue Planet, when one sees underwater filming of billions of fish, of starling murmurations, why do they do it?  It’s wonderful.  We can connect with the natural world, if we don’t keep being plugged into screens. People can change in a nano second. That’s what we have to hope for, the sudden realisation that people ‘get it’, the beauty and love we should have for life,” Joanna told me.

She confessed her favourite animal is ‘a piglet, Babe’ and favourite food ‘lettuce’, salted peanuts and a margarita’!  

I asked Joanna what the one thing she’d change for farmed animals would be: “Freedom” Joanna said without hesitation. 

And commenting on the terrible life of a factory farmed chicken and the cruelty of cages, Joanna received rapturous applause when she rightly spoke out that ‘something is badly wrong when chicken and chips is cheaper than a salad’. 

So very true dear Joanna. 

If you were unable to be with us, please do watch our recording of this special event. You will not be disappointed.

It simply remains for me to say a heartfelt thank you to the incomparable Joanna Lumley and to the Oxford Literary Festival for so kindly supporting Compassion in World Farming and helping create better lives for animals, people, and the planet.