The lovely young person in this picture  – no, I don’t mean the piggy one, though she is gorgeous too – as I was saying, this lovely young person and I have two things in common. First of all we are both committed vegans for the animals, the environment and the planet. And second, like many others we both draw inspiration from Albert Schweitzer. For her, “Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace” and for me his philosophy of “Reverence for Life” – one and the same thing of course.

Sadly for me, there the resemblance ends. Because this teenager is a wonder and has already accomplished more in her 14 years on the planet than I have in my … well, I don’t think I’ll divulge just how many years.

So meet Lila Copeland. At 8 years of age, already an activist, Lila’s CV included marching with fellow activists for GMO transparency and animal welfare, working to pass Prop 37 “California’s Right to Know” Act, as well as protesting factory farming.

By 10, this vegetarian-from-birth went vegan. And what a vegan she is, with a passion for sharing information with her peers, on “factory farm cruelty on animals, the cruelty of slaughter, the viability of living vegan, and how important that is to the planet.”

Age 11 she set up the Earth Peace Foundation. We can certainly see the influence of Dr Schweitzer in its mission statement:

We are for achieving peace between all species and preserving the earth’s ecological soundness for future generations

On the EPF’s website, informative videos, a reading list and useful web links. Best of all, “A Guide for Young People Going Vegan (and how to help your parents chill)”

Watch the video she made for Al Gore, Kevin Wall and the United Nations when she (then 13) discovered from Morrissey that unbelievably, animal products were on the menu at the climate change event Live Earth last year.

2016 sees Lila working on her latest project, the Healthy Freedom Campaign, to get vegan meal options in Los Angeles schools five days a week. No need for her to rely on just words for the benefits of the plant-based diet. As a Junior Olympian in long distance running and a keen surfer, shes’s the perfect demonstration of the fitness and energy vegan foods provide.

This is Lila with guess who addressing the LA schools board just last month, in her bid to get vegan meals into school cafeterias.

As well as Pamela Anderson, she brought into the meeting Cowspiracy’s Dr Michael Klaper, athlete Torre Washington, and some notable health experts to explain the connection between animal products and heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes. But what is more persuasive than vegan talk? Why vegan food of course. The schools board were treated to some tasty hot food samples, and were in Lila’s words, “blown away”.

Her ambitions are not small. (I guess we could have worked that out from the Earth Peace Foundation!) From LA to nationwide – Lila wants to see her Healthy Freedom Campaign taken up at federal level by 2020. And with a video like this, how can she fail?

This is how Lila shares her recipe for success with other young activists:

Be prepared “to be told no 100 times before you get a yes. If you get fatigued, just think about the animals who are dying every minute of every hour of every day against their will and you will have the strength to keep going.”

If there are inspiring passionate young vegans like Lila in the next generation, there’s hope for planet Earth yet.

 

Like Lila’s EPF Facebook page 

Sign petition following Lila’s plea to the Live Earth event, to ask world leaders for urgent action on climate change

 

Sources

One Green Planet

Earth Peace Foundation