Bruce Gregory Friedrich is co-founder and executive director of The Good Food Institute. Friedrich is a TED Fellow, Y Combinator alum, and public speaker on food innovation. He spoke at TED 2019, has appeared on NBC's Today Show, CBS This Morning, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC, and has presented at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, and more. Friedrich is the author of two books, including Clean Protein with Kathy Freston, as well as several book chapters and law review articles. He holds degrees from Georgetown Law, the London School of Economics, and Johns Hopkins University. Friedrich lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Alka Chandna, Ph.D.
From September 2015 to the present, Friedrich has been Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Good Food Institute. He leads GFI's team of scientists, business analysts, and policy experts in accelerating the plant-based and cell-based meat industries. Friedrich is also an active contributor to the public discourse around meat production, climate change, and antibiotic resistance. He has penned opinion pieces for USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, and many other publications. Friedrich is a frequent lecturer and debater on college campuses, including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Cornell University, Stanford University, and dozens of other colleges and universities across the country. His April 2019 TED talk has been viewed more than 2 million times and translated into dozens of languages.
From May 2011 to September 2015, Friedrich worked for Farm Sanctuary in the Washington, D.C. area. As Senior Policy Director, Friedrich led Farm Sanctuary's policy and litigation efforts and introduced the world to who farm animals are as individuals through the Someone, Not Something project, which he created.
From August 2009 to May 2011, Friedrich was a teacher at the Baltimore Freedom Academy. He taught English, social justice, and government to 10th and 11th graders in the Baltimore inner city area.
Work with PETA
Friedrich worked for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals from May 1996 to August 2009 in the Washington D.C. area. Friedrich wrote and made an audio recording of "Veganism in a Nutshell," a popular synopsis of the reasons some choose to go vegan. He appeared as a candidate on the 2004 Showtime reality series American Candidate. As Director of Vegan Campaigns, Friedrich was responsible for producing Meet Your Meat, a video about factory farming narrated by Alec Baldwin. In a 2010 essay, Friedrich explained his view of God's direction in working on behalf of animals:
As a result of my prayer over Linzey's work and conversations with my spiritual director at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, my focus turned to animal protection, where it's stayed for the last 15 years. Since that time, I've occasionally been asked why I focus my efforts on protecting animals, rather than humans. So, as this Advent season begins, I decided to offer some thoughts on why I view working on behalf of animals -- and especially farmed animals -- as God's work.
In promoting vegetarianism from a Christian perspective, Friedrich has said, "The heart of this campaign is Jesus' call for mercy and compassion." PETA President Ingrid Newkirk gave Bruce the nickname "Bruce Poppins" due to his unrelentingly positive demeanor.
Early life and education
Friedrich was born in West Lafayette, Indiana on August 7, 1969. Friedrich's father is Gustav William Friedrich, Ph.D. and his mother was Erena Rae. Gustav Friedrich is a Rutgers University distinguished professor and was Dean of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers for ten years. Erena Rae was an art director, graphic designer, and commercial illustrator. Bruce Friedrich graduated from Norman High School in 1987. He served as president of the Cleveland CountyYoung Democrats during his last two years of high school and campaigned for the late Sen. Paul Simon in 1987 during his first year of college. From 1990 to 1996, he worked in a shelter for homeless families and a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. as a part of the Catholic Worker Movement. While he was working in the homeless shelter, a friend gave him Christianity and the Rights of Animals by Andrew Linzey, an Anglican Priest and professor of theology at Oxford University. "It changed my life," Friedrich later said. Friedrich graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Grinnell College with a B.A. in English, Economics, and Religion. He received an M.A. in Education from Johns Hopkins University. He received his J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center, graduating magna cum laude, Order of the Coif. Friedrich married Alka Chandna in October 2002.
Works
Writing
—contributed “Plant-Based and Clean Meat Will Save the World”
—lead author
—contributed “She Knows Better”
Introduction to
Chapter 15, Effective Advocacy: Stealing from the Corporate Playbook p. 187
Wrote the Foreword of the book Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism by Mark Hawthorne.
