A national magazine says a man with Iowa ties who’s a leader in the animal rights movement is one of the most influential men in America. Bruce Friederich, a graduate of Grinnell College, is director of the vegan outreach program for PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “Details” magazine lists him as one of the 50 most influential men under age 38. Friedrich says it’s nice, and surprising to see “farmed-animal issues” taken so seriously. He says he’s the only one on the list to take animal issues so seriously. Actor Ben Affleck was on top of the list, and Friederich is sandwiched between rapper Eminem at fourth and actor Leonardo DiCaprio in sixth.Friederich says he hopes he gets a call from one of the others on the list and they’ll speak out about animal issues, as he says they’d probably get a lot more attention. Friederich gained attention for his PETA (Pee-tuh) work against fast food chains. He says he directed the campaigns against Burger King, Wendy’s and McDonalds to get them to change the way they treated chickens in factory farms. Friederich grew up in Austin, Minnesota, the home of Hormel meat company and a big packing plant. He says that’s where he got his first interest in animal rights.He says he started noticing the way animals were treated as he grew up, and then really got involved in animal rights after entering college in Grinnell. Friederich says he started and animal rights group on the Grinnell College campus, and that led to his current career. Friederich doesn’t think showing up on the magazine’s list will affect him that much, as he says he already has the attention of the people PETA targets. He says they’re making progress in their attempts to get people to quit eating and abusing animals. He says one million people a year are adopting a vegetarian diet. He says the sale of meat and milk products has stagnated, while he says the sale of frozen faux meat products is seeing the fastest increase. Friederich says if you look at the day-to-day progress, you might get discouraged, but he says year-to-year, they’ve made “speed-of-light” progress compared to other social justice movements. The list that includes Friederich is in the October issue of “Details” magazine.