Bruce friedrich

Bruce Friedrich

PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER

Bruce Friedrich serves as GFI’s chief thought leader and relationship-builder, working in close partnership with GFI’s global teams and food system stakeholders around the world.

Areas of expertise: alternative proteins generally, GFI’s global programs and strategy, bicycling in heavy traffic.

Bruce has penned op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, Nature Food, Wired, and many other publications. He has represented GFI on the Ezra Klein Show, Making Sense (Sam Harris), TED Radio Hour, New Yorker Radio Hour, PBS News Hour, and a variety of other podcasts and TV programs. Bruce’s TED talk has been viewed almost 2.5 million times and translated into 30 languages.

Nature featured Bruce’s 2026 book Meat as one of its five “best science picks,” and Publishers Weekly selected Meat as one of the 10 best new releases in science, writing: “This packed account makes food science feel like an urgent and essential undertaking.”

The book has also received praise from Nobel Laureate in economics Michael Kremer, primatologist Jane Goodall, science fiction master Kim Stanley Robinson, and CSIS director of global food and water security Caitlin Welsh, who penned the foreword. Says Welsh: “This book explains the imperative to transform our food systems, and lays out a game plan to get us there…. Meat is as important as it is enjoyable.”

Find out more on the book’s website, MeatBook.org.

Bruce graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law and also holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics, and Grinnell College.

Talks & Podcasts

Discussing Meat with News Hour co-anchor Geoff Bennett
Jon Lovett and Bruce talk alternative meats
Simon Hill and Bruce, seven years after their first conversation
Discussing Meat with Peter Singer & Kasia de Lazari Radek
The world cannot solve climate unless the world solves meat
Discussing Meat with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Alternative meats could be the world’s most transformative technology
TED: The Next Agricultural Revolution
The UN Food & Agriculture Organization, CGIAR, and GFI: Alternative Proteins for Climate, Hunger, & Global Health
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – Eating for a healthy body and a healthy planet
Man touching golden heads of wheat while walking through field

Regenerative agriculture and alternative proteins: complementary approaches to feed a growing world

Regenerative agriculture and alternative proteins can work hand-in-hand to create a just, secure, and sustainable food system.

Cultivated chicken meat

Cultivated meat: A growing nomenclature consensus

GFI Founder and CEO Bruce Friedrich explores the increased sector alignment around the preferred category name for meat produced through cellular agriculture.

Celebrating 5 years

Celebrating five years: Announcing our new mission, vision, logo, and website

Five years after our founding, GFI is launching a new brand and website. Both enable us to triple-down on our commitment to a sustainable, secure, and just protein supply.

Sun rising over earth

Plant-based and clean meat are crucial for a sustainable food system

If we are going to effectively address the environmental devastation and public health threats of industrial animal agriculture, it is critical that we develop plant-based and clean meat. Regardless of…

Black and white carriage and horses

History is clear: Innovation will remove animals from industrial systems

Every time we’ve innovated an animal-free way of doing things, that has become the norm. That can happen in food, too. Big milk started one marketing revolution, big meat can…