Prof Andrew Knight Interview

So really good morning to you all, and I’m just absolutely thrilled to have professor Andrew Knight to interview this morning.

Good morning, Andrew Good morning Arielle. How are you? Yes. Really good.

I can’t tell you how excited I am with interviewing you. Personally, I do have to just say that I feel a little bit starstruck. I hold you in such high regard, you’re sort of like a celebrity in my eyes because, honestly, the work that you’ve done,

I just have to start this with just saying that it actually goes without saying that the research that YOU have done and the time that you’ve put in has been a complete Game Changer for the way that we feed our pets.

I speak personally as a dog owner, as a dog lover, I feed my own little dog, a little family dog Ruff a 100% plant-based diet. He absolutely loves it. He’s thriving. And as a vet, I have actually given up full time veterinary consulting to concentrate fully on helping other owners because there are thousands of people like me who have read your research, who believe you, who are reassured by everything that you’ve done.

And so the way forward for all of us is just fantastic, and we’ve got you to thank for that. So let’s go straight into my very first question for you is, where does it all start for you, Andrew? What led you into wanting to do research, into plant-based feeding of our pets?

Well, that’s a super kind introduction, I should say I’m just a failed beach bum from Australia. I would like to be on a beach surfing, but I’m not very successful at that.

So instead I’ve fallen into this interesting world where I’m getting to do lots of really exciting research in large scale studies of health outcomes and cats and dogs maintained on vegan diets versus meat-based diets and other things like that.

I got into all this because I was a practising small animal veterinarian with cats and dogs, mostly around London for nearly a decade. And I think all of us in veterinary practice are concerned by the increasing rates of obesity and overweight that we see in cats and dogs today. The majority of these animals are now suffering from these conditions, which has impacts on quality of life and longevity.

We’re also increasingly aware of the impacts of the global food system on things like land clearing, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions. We’ve just literally seen a new study come out this week actually showing that since I was born, I’m afraid, in 1970. We’ve now lost 70% of our global animal populations.

The primary cause of that is clearing for land for the food system. 80% of all the land used in the food system is for the livestock sector. So it is the biggest cause of species loss globally and we’re in a mass extinction event currently when more than half of all living creatures are going extinct within a short period of time and this is the primary cause.

So I think as we are increasingly becoming aware of these sorts of issues and increasingly are hoping for better longevity and standards of well-being for our cats and dogs. We’re starting to look at what we’re feeding them. The impacts of their diets, and wondering if we can do things better.

Certainly, I wondered that as a vet in small animal practice.

Now that I’m the head of a Research Centre at the University of Winchester, I have the opportunity because of external funding, which I’ve succeeded in getting through grants and things like that, to conduct these really large scale studies of health outcomes and also environmental impacts of different types of pet food and the findings have been incredibly exciting.

And I’m really glad that you and others have found them so useful.

Absolutely. And which I just want to reiterate that because it’s such an important point is that you haven’t received corporate funding as other pet food company or other researchers would have done through pet food companies or huge veterinary corporates or big pharma sponsoring this research. This has only been done through small grants, hasn’t it? And you are using your time and your passions to really get the research papers out there. Am I correct?

Yeah. Most of the research that goes on in academia in the UK is funded by major research councils, government research councils, which provide large pots of money. And the university I am at is a fairly small one where the teaching and administrative load is very high. And we unfortunately don’t have the support needed to apply for the really big grants, which each one of these applications is quite a major project in itself.

So generally, we’re not able to do that at our university. So I haven’t been able to get those large sources of funding, but I always say that I’m on a fairly low salary in academia and the benefits of that is that it’s pretty cheap to buy me out of teaching. So that’s the term that we use when you do get external funding to hire other people to do your teaching for you so you can go off and do research. So the benefit of being on a salary is only a fraction of what I would receive at other universities around the world is that it’s fairly cheap to for me to do research. to be bought out of teaching.

So I have gotten small amounts of money and it’s enabled me to focus more on this research and as I say the benefits of that have been incredible because with a tiny number of other people around the world, we’re now getting the first large scale studies showing what their health outcomes are when cats and dogs are maintained on vegan diets versus meat-based diets and also other key aspects such as the extent to which they show behavioural indicators demonstrating that they like or dislike different types of food and I’ve been able to show that according to as far as we can tell from really large scale studies of their behaviour, the cats and dogs eating vegan pet food, seem to enjoy their food.

Just much as those eating meat-based pet food and that’s also really important for many pet guardians when choosing diets and also looking at environmental sustainability of these different diets and other aspects.

So super exciting research. It’s creating, I think, a bit of a sea change in this field as an explosion of companies now wanting to establish new products in this area which is fantastic. And people are increasingly interested in transitioning their animals’ diets as well for the betterment of their animals and the planet at large.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

You’re obviously a vet, so you have training in the health of animals. That’s such an important aspect of doing your research. You have a professorship in animal welfare so that’s right at the top of your agenda is animal welfare. But then equally, I know you love the outdoors. You love your canoeing and your running and you’ve lived in different continents where it’s always been the outdoors. And so you’re an environmentalist as well

Which is your main driving factor that you feel really pushes you in your research?

I suppose I’m interested in trying to have the biggest and the best impact that I can have during my limited time upon the earth. And there are so many ways we can choose to try to get involved in worthwhile issues around animal welfare.

But there’s a growing awareness of something called Effective Altruism, which is where you consider all the issues that you could choose to take on. And you try to consider how much good each issue would achieve. How tractable the issue is to change. How much your efforts are likely to actually result in change, and also how neglected the issue is whether other people are working on the issue.

And also, I suppose your personal skill set and opportunities. How well suited you are to trying to make a difference on that issue. And the options include things that many people are interested in. Hands on work to help individual animals or groups of animals. Other people will run campaigns for social change on various issues.

So I’ve picked this issue because it really hits all of those priorities for me. It’s something that’s very neglected. Very few people are working on it. There’s huge potential to make positive changes. It suits me well because I’m a vet obviously, and I’ve got the experience in clinical practice. So I’m aware of these healthcare issues for cats and dogs.

So it’s just an incredibly exciting field to be in and more companies and more veterinarians are getting involved in this area. And we’re at the leading edge of what is going to be a revolution in the pet food sector in the same way that vegan food is creating a revolution in the human food space as well.

I think it’s the fastest growing sector of the human food industry at the moment.

Oh, I love that. And I love that “Effective altruism”  – You’re the pinnacle of it. It’s just proof of how ONE person can make SUCH a difference and that’s within all of us.

It’s such a positive way to end this with you Andrew.

So on behalf of billions…..I feel quite emotional doing this, but on behalf of billions of land animals, of birds, and of fish that you have saved through your research. On behalf of hundreds of thousands of pets who will lead healthier lives now going forward. And on behalf of the environment where you actually give us such hope with your Effective Altruism that you put into practice.

Just keep going. Just keep doing everything you’re doing.

I speak on behalf of all the people who I know follow me and listen to me. We just think you’re wonderful. So just keep going, and thank you SO much for giving this interview. Thank you Andrew.

Thank you very much indeed that’s very kind.