Bruce Gregory Friedrich (born August 7, 1969) is co-founder and president of

The Good Food Institute The Good Food Institute (GFI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal products, particularly meat, dairy, and eggs. It was created in 2016 by the nonprofit organization Mercy For Animals w ...

(GFI), a

Y Combinator Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, St ...

funded non-profit that promotes

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae excl ...

- and cell-based alternatives to animal products. He is also a co-founder of the alternative protein venture capital firm New Crop Capital. Friedrich previously worked for

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, a ...

and

Farm Sanctuary Farm Sanctuary is an American animal protection organization, founded in 1986 as an advocate for farmed animals. It was America's first shelter for farmed animals. It promotes laws and policies that support animal welfare, animal protection, a ...

Early life and education

Friedrich was born in

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister cit ...

on August 7, 1969. In 1987, he graduated from

Norman High School Norman High School is a four-year public high school in Norman, Oklahoma with a steady enrollment of approximately 2,000 students. It is accredited by North Central Association, the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma Seconda ...

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, be ...

. In 1996, Friedrich graduated

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

from

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...

with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

, and Religion. He holds degrees from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

and the London School of Economics, and received his J.D. degree from

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

, graduating magna cum laude,

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, ...

Career

Friedrich served as Director of Policy for four years at

. Prior to that, he worked at

for 15 years. As Head of Public Campaigns, he led many of the organization's highest-profile campaigns. The most notable one was from the early 2000s when he and PETA tried convincing the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the t ...

football team to change its name, which had originated from a defunct meat packing plant in the Green Bay area, which failed. Friedrich was recruited by Mercy For Animals as a co-founder of

(GFI) with the goal of transforming the

food system The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growi ...

by promoting price- and taste-competitive alternatives to animal products. In recognition for his work at GFI, Friedrich was named an "American Food Hero" by the Eating Well magazine in 2021. Friedrich is a co-founder of New Crop Capital; a venture capital firm for funding the development of alternative proteins. Friedrich is a TED fellow; in 2019, he gave a TED Talk that has since been viewed more than 2.3 million times arguing that plant- and cell-based alternatives had the potential to transform the global meat industry, preventing

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and pandemics from

antibiotic resistant Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from the effects of antimicrobials. All classes of microbes can evolve resistance. Fungi evolve antifungal resistance. Viruses evolve antiviral resistance. P ...

pathogens.

Philanthropy

effective altruism Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, ca ...

advocate, Friedrich is a member of

Giving What We Can Giving What We Can (GWWC) is an effective altruism-associated organisation whose members pledge to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities. It was founded at Oxford University in 2009 by the philosopher Toby Ord, physician-in- ...

, a community of people who have pledged to donate a portion of their income to effective charities.

Personal life

Friedrich is Christian and has been vegan since 1987. He is married to Alka Chandna, who works for PETA.

Works

* * *

References

External links

Bruce Friedrich
on The Good Food Institute's website
TED Talk: The next global agricultural revolution
(2019) *Interviews with Bruce Friedrich: *
Making Sense podcast with Sam Harris
(2021) *
80,000 Hours podcast
(2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Friedrich, Bruce 1969 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics American animal rights activists American chief executives of food industry companies American food company founders American nonprofit businesspeople American veganism activists American venture capitalists Georgetown University Law Center alumni Grinnell College alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty People associated with effective altruism People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals personnel People from West Lafayette, Indiana TED Fellows