Bruce Friedrich, director of vegan outreach for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), will present “Science as a Political Enterprise: Examining the Meat & Dairy Debate,” as a guest speaker in a science education course at the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester. The talk, scheduled for Nov. 4 at 6:15 p.m., will be held in Bausch and Lomb Room 106 on the River Campus. The event is free and open to the public.

In his talk, Friedrich will question scientific methods and analysis and the validity of the outcome of scientific studies evaluating the health benefits of meat and milk. He will address the controversial issue of the use of science to support special interests. Included in his talk will be a discussion of the debate between animal welfare advocates and the meat and dairy industries and how both sides claim adherence to the science, yet arrive at different scientific conclusions.

Graduate students in the class, which is taught by April Lynn Luehmann, assistant professor of Teaching and Curriculum at the Warner School, will help facilitate the talk. "Friedrich’s talk offers all of us the opportunity to critically explore how scientific knowledge is constructed and communicated. Too often when science is studied the controversy surrounding its growth and development is absent from the conversation,” says Luehmann. “Science is not the objective and sterile endeavor that we often believe. Science is biased, and in order to promote a scientifically literate society, consumers of this knowledge need to be encouraged to challenge this bias."

Friedrich has spearheaded some of PETA’s most successful campaigns to help animals, including one against a fast-food corporation’s animal treatment practices. He has appeared on television and news programs, including The Today Show and various programs on CNN, the Fox News Network, and MSNBC, in addition to features in articles in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. Friedrich was recently named the fifth most influential man under 38 years old in Details magazine.