Josh Balk is the vice president of farm animal protection for The Humane Society of the United States farm animal division. In addition, he is a cofounder of JUST, a food technology company. Prior to working with HSUS and founding JUST, he was known for his work at Animal Outlook. Balk is best known for leading successful legislative campaigns for farm animals, along with his work with food companies in enacting animal welfare policies that include eliminating gestation crates for breeding pigs and battery cages for chickens. He is also known for his work with the food industry to shift its focus onto plant-based foods.
Baseball career
Balk attended Radnor High School, where he was chosen as an Adidas top 100 future Major League baseball prospect, and also became the school's record holder for most wins and strikeouts. Since his graduation, the school honors the team's best pitcher each year with the "Josh Balk Award." He went on to Keystone College where he was awarded the school’s best pitcher and all-league honors in his freshman year. However, Balk was unable to continue pitching after his first collegiate season due to a career-ending shoulder surgery. In 2001, Balk transferred to The George Washington University to pursue a degree in political-science.
Career
Work at Animal Outlook
Following college, Balk worked at Animal Outlook as an undercover investigator in slaughterhouses and factory farms. He also worked with various retailers, showing them different ways to add vegetarian options to their menus, and launched the organization's first national anti-factory farming advertising campaign.
Since starting with The HSUS in 2005, Balk has worked with many of the largest corporations in the world to improve animal welfare in their supply chains. Some of these companies include Walmart, General Mills, McDonald's, Kroger, and Perdue. He has worked with food service companies like Compass Group, Aramark, and Sodexo to make plant-based front and center on their menus. He also helped lead successful legislative campaigns to criminalize factory farming abuse in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. Most notably, Balk led the Proposition 12 campaign in California, which ushered in the strongest farm animal protections in the world.
Founding JUST, Inc.
In 2011, Balk founded JUST with Josh Tetrick. Bill Gates named JUST as one of three companies that will forever change the food system. The company was also named as one of CNBC's Disruptor 50 for two consecutive years in a row.
Balk in the media
Balk’s work has been covered by the USA Today, Associated Press, Fortune, CNN, Christian Science Monitor, The New Food Economy, and dozens of other outlets. He has been featured in books such as Kathy Freston’s New York Times best-selling book, Veganist, Melanie Joy’s, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, Caryn Ginsberg's, Animal Impact, Ben Davidow's, Uncaged, Nathan Runkle's Mercy For Animals, Judah Pollack and Olivia Fox Cabane's The Net and the Butterfly and Paul Shapiro's Clean Meat. His work with corporations was featured in Nicholas Kristoff's New York Times column entitled, "Can We See Our Hypocrisy to Animals?" printed on July 28, 2013. Balk was also a co-executive producer for the well-known 2018 documentary Game Changers. In 2018, Balk was noted in the book, Rescuing Ladybugs by author and animal advocate Jennifer Skiff as being inspired to start food company, JUST after a personal experience with one chicken while working undercover at a chicken slaughter plant owned by Perdue Farms. In the same book, Skiff recognised Balk for his role leading the corporate negotiation efforts for the farm animal department at the Humane Society of the United States that "convinced hundreds of companies to adopt strict animal welfare policies."
Awards and recognition
Inc. Magazine named Balk as one of the "35 Under 35", in 2014 and one of 15 entrepreneurs to watch in 2015. Balk was also named one of "15 Entrepreneurs Who Will Make 2015 An Unforgettable Year". At the 2015 Animal Rights National Conference, Balk was elected by fellow presenters to the Animal Rights Hall of Fame, for his innovative contributions to increasing and popularizing vegan alternatives to animal products, as well as his other work on behalf of farmed animals.
