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Earthling Ed: Justice, Compassion and Equality
Earthling Ed and The Big Vegan Activism Van in the UK.
For our feature interview, we are thrilled to present UK-based animal activist Earthling Ed. Ed Winters is known all over the world for his engaging and inspiring messages to communicate a more kinder existence for all beings. Earthling Ed is the co-founder of the UK-based animal rights organization called Surge, which is a creative grassroots group dedicated to making a world where compassion towards all non-human animals is the norm.
Earthling Ed engages in a variety of forms of activism, and is most widely known for his street activism, in which he converses with members of the public to create positive dialogues and find common ground. Ed also produces free resources, such as a 122 page e-book called “30 Non-Vegan Excuses and How to Respond to Them”, and he has made a documentary film called “The Land of Hope and Glory”, which brings to light the abuse and exploitation in the animal agriculture industry in the UK.
In this discussion with Earthling Ed, we ask him to speak about some of the findings in the 100 undercover investigations that were undertaken to make his documentary film.
We also delve into a discussion with him about cognitive dissonance and some of the many common reasons that he has heard from people over time in why they disagree with veganism. This following video (just released) is a great example of such thinking, and we play a short clip of this video in which the young man has a hard time admitting that humans are indeed “animals”, believes that it’s okay to eat pigs but not dog, and thinks that since we have limited time on the earth that we should be eating whatever we want without regard for anything else on the planet. We find out what Ed thinks about this kind of thinking, and how we can become armed with knowledge and compassion to create a world in which there is justice and equality for all beings.
Finally, we tackle some deeper topics when it comes to society’s place on the planet and other issues that arise when considering social justice issues, such as world poverty (and Vancouver’s local poverty), and environmental concerns. Where does the issue of animal rights fit in this and how do all social justice issues connectively intertwine?