What makes a person get up before dawn, travel to an unremarkable factory outside Scunthorpe in the north of England with other activists and storm a rooftop, ‘lock on’ outside the gates or affix oneself to the top of a bamboo tower or van as part of a three-day blockade? We spoke to three activists to find out.

Who remembers when we could hit the streets at a moment’s notice to hand out vegan flyers and talk to people about the rights of animals? Or rustle up some signs and hold a demonstration without fear of getting too close to anyone. One year after the first recorded case of Covid-19 in the UK, we discuss the state of grassroots activism today, how things have changed for us here at Surge, and a message of hope for the future.

It is the kind of story we can all get behind: a small group of activists with a big vision - and even bigger hearts – enlists the help of a high-profile lawyer to take on the Government and present a legal challenge that could very well change the future for humans, non-human animals and the planet. In the first of our Grassroots Focus series, we spoke to David Finney, Jane Tredgett and Peta Smith, volunteers at Humane Being, about the launch of the pioneering Scrap Factory Farming campaign.