Our Mission.
Founded in 2016, Surge is a creative non-profit striving to create a world where compassion towards all non-human animals is the norm.
We focus our attention on creating productions that tell the untold stories of animals and the corruption behind the industries that exploit them. We’re also active through outreach-based programmes in universities across the UK and the United States.
Our philosophy is that change comes through vegan education. Through our many educational projects and operations, our mission is to push veganism forward into mainstream public thinking and to shine a light on the hidden reality of what’s happening to animals across the world.
Our vision is a world in which all animals are free from human-inflicted oppression and violence.
Our vision is of a vegan world.
Ed Winters (known online as Earthling Ed) is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Surge.
For the animals.
Animals are individuals, who are just like us in all the ways that matter. Every year, trillions of animals are killed through the purchases that we make. We live in a consumer-led society, meaning that we as the consumer have the power to end mass animal suffering. We can not only survive, but thrive on a plant-based diet, making animal suffering for food entirely unnecessary. We reject the use of animals for food, clothing, entertainment or any other purpose. We acknowledge that animals exist within their own right, and are here with us, not for us.
Why vegan?
For the planet.
Animal agriculture uses 83% of all global agricultural land, yet produces less than two fifths of the protein we consume and less than one fifth of the calories we consume. Raising animals for meat, dairy and eggs is responsible for 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions, meaning the emissions produced from animal agriculture is more than the combined exhaust of the transportation industry. Switching to a plant based diet would also allow us to feed everyone on the planet whilst also freeing up 75% of agricultural land, which is an area of land equivalent in size to the whole of Australia, China, the EU and the US combined. Land which could then be reforested and restored, allowing us to sequester 16 years worth of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the year 2050.
For global health.
When it comes to health, it’s not just that a plant based diet has been shown to be healthy and nutritionally adequate for all stages of life, including pregnancy and infancy, as stated by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
It’s that a whole-foods plant based diet has been shown to help the gut microbiome, reduce inflammation, lower high cholesterol and high blood pressure, boost your immune system and also reduce the risk of developing many of our leading chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, type two diabetes, strokes, certain forms of cancer such as colon, breast and prostate, and may even protect against cognitive decline.
Although the meat, dairy and egg industries tell us that animal products contain essential nutrients that we cannot find elsewhere, this simply isn't true.
