Heather Mills debates meat eating for Intelligence Squared

Heather Mills

Campaigner and fundraiser for animal rights and other charitable causes

Heather Mills is an activist, charity campaigner, and a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. She campaigned for over 14 years to raise funds and awareness to rid the world of landmines, helping to clear 21 million square metres of land, and fit over 400,000 amputees with prostheses. Her efforts in this field took on an ironic significance when, in August 1993, she was involved in a road accident with a police motorcycle, suffering the loss of her left leg below the knee, a crushed pelvis, and punctured lung.

Heather is a committed patron and activist for the charity “Viva!”. Heather has recently invested substantial resources into the development of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy, through her restaurant concept Vbites and her multi-award winning ethical food company Redwood Wholefoods. She believes her adherence to a vegan, raw food diet prevented an infection from taking her leg above the knee, and that by changing our diet we could help to change our world. In 2008, Heather pledged $1million in food to the Hunts Point Alliance for Children (HPAC), and funded the building and running of a free cafe, in the heart of one of the most deprived areas of New York, to encourage a healthy eating drive.

Heather’s activism has included covert filming with “Viva!” to expose animal cruelty, and she considers her biggest success to be her critical role in the campaign to ban the import of cat and dog fur from China into the European Union. The law was passed unanimously by the European Parliament in 2008, saving the lives of millions of animals.

Heather has won over 30 awards for her endeavours, including "The Compassionate Visionary Award", Animal Rights Activist of the Year 2008, the inaugural UNESCO Children in Need Award, as well as an Open University Doctorate in 2004.