Federal Agencies Seek Alternatives to Traditional Animal Testing

Here's a little non-food related news but some very good news for animals and advanced science:

A new plan to further reduce, refine and replace the use of animals in research and regulatory testing commonly referred to as the 3Rs was unveiled today at a symposium marking the 10-year anniversary of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM). The plan identifies priority areas for research, development, translation, and validation activities necessary to achieve regulatory acceptance of alternative test methods. A cornerstone of the federal government's five-year plan is the formation of partnerships with industry and other national and international stakeholders to achieve measurable progress...

Traditionally, chemicals, consumer products, medical devices and new drugs are tested on animals to predict toxicity on humans, but scientists, like those involved in ICCVAM, are working to promote the development and validation of alternative test methods. Alternative test methods are those that accomplish one or more of the 3Rs of reducing the number of animals used in testing, or refining procedures so animals experience less pain and distress, or replacing animals with non-animal systems.

William Stokes, D.V.M., director of NICEATM, the NTP office at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) that administers ICCVAM, highlighted some of the progress made since ICCVAM was formed, including the fact that ICCVAM has evaluated more than 185 test methods since its inception in 1997. Many of these methods need further development and validation before they are ready for regulatory consideration. However, several are now in widespread use around the world for routine safety testing, resulting in notable reduction and refinement of animal use. "We've made great progress in the past decade, and with the help of our partners we can do even more to increase the pace of developing and introducing alternative methods."

You can read the entire National Institutes of Health press release here.

Creating a Read-Write Culture

Things have been quiet on my end in terms of the blog because I am in the process of writing a cookbook. A very, very small cookbook but one that requires any extra typing and thinking time I have. I am taking a cookbook writing course sponsored by Media Bistro and instructed by Corinne Trang. Corinne is teaching the class so much in a short four weeks, things about creating and structuring a recipe that I never realized while reading and using many of them. I'm really enjoying the process of just sitting with one set of ingredients and instructions for a good, long while, figuring out what to say and what not to say, and really thinking about why I would want to share a recipe, the story behind it. I'm reading the two cookbooks by my bed, Corinne's Essentials of Asian Cuisine: Fundamentals and Favorite Recipes and Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe in a new light, amazed by the amount of detail, thought, and love that goes onto every page. I admit, I first loved cookbooks mostly because I just loved eating and wanted to make something to eat. That's definitely still true but now that I'm trying to write my own recipes and figure out what I want to say with a collection of them, I truly realize what an all-consuming, creative endeavor it can be, even separate from the cooking and eating (although, of course, eating will always be my favorite thing to do).

Anyways, when I opened a window to create this post, I intended to write a sentence or two about the class and just share this letter from Kristin Hersh about how being a culture of either producer or consumer is completely outmoded and how blogging and blogging about food in particular is really an enterprise of community, sharing, blurring, if not obliterating, the lines between reader and writer. But then I just had a whole bunch I wanted to say. It's always cool to be surprised as you're writing. It happens to me all the time. I really never know what I'll say until I do, no matter how sure I am of a point as it sits in my head. That's the funnest part. So, this isn't about food per se, but it is about sharing and art and that's all a part, a huge part, of food. So here are parts of Kristin's letter, which you can read in its entirety here. Then please listen to, share, and play around with her song "Slippershell."

As many of you may already know, CASH is an acronym -- it stands for the Coalition of Artists & Stake Holders. The name indicates just what we're all hoping to build here -- a coalition through which we blur the line that's traditionally stood between creators of content and the consumers of that content...

We're all stake holders here. We all stand to gain from a productive relationship. Maybe it will help to think of this relationship as a conversation...

Art is by nature a conversation. I'd like us to make it a community. Think about what you have to offer. Read-only culture is not enough anymore. We'd like you to treat this stuff as read-write...

What does read-write mean? Maybe as you're listening to "Slippershell", you're inspired to DO something: paint a picture, write an essay, make a video, remix, or even re-record the song. Please do so.

Break for Blogs

Blogging takes commitment, time, and energy. Commitment is something Joselle and I definitely share...but we seem to be lacking in the whole time and energy department these days. We want to eventually get to a point where we can blog every day; something that seems as distant as aspirations of eventually being able to prepare meals together on a daily basis. It's certainly possible. In fact, Joselle and I are planning on it.

Beyond just living in the same city and getting more frequent access to one of these here computers, we just want to create together. We'd like to follow in the footsteps of Compassionate Cooks and Vegan Freaks everywhere (Joselle is officially addicted to podcasts like I'm now addicted to the whimsical storytelling and television utopia of Northern Exposure). We also want to follow in the footsteps of people everywhere who pursue their passions and whatever brings them joy without inflicting pain on the rest of the world.

I find happiness in the solace of you, Joselle. I love the way you're here for me, even when you can't be here with me. And I'm so grateful for how you---as the evolving omnivore of this relationship---compel me toward an even greater personal commitment to the welfare of animals and environment.

Life Swap

Have you ever seen television's Wife Swap? Joselle and I managed to watch an episode together last night, thanks to telephone technology. As seems typical, the show focuses on oddly-paired people who breathe fire at each other while learning valuable life lessons. Joselle and I learned a lesson or two of our own by watching this Wife Swap program: 1.) Most people are not terribly functional in our society; and 2.) No two people eat the same exact way.

Couple A idolizes its miniature doggies with fancy feasts and hand-knitted sweaters, all while worshiping the convenience of gas-guzzling automobiles and gas-inducing, meat-based fast food. Couple B is the epitome of West-Coast American environmentalism with its freegan dumpster-diving, human-waste-recycling backyard agriculture, and overall placidity. Both couples are a hoot---and quite extreme in their own idiosynchratic ways. When dumped together under one roof, the mutual menu is a hard sell. Mom from Couple A thinks that people who "pee on their garden" are "sick." Mom from Couple B thinks that fried chicken is definitely not the way to a household at peace with itself---and the lazy SUV in the garage sure isn't helping any.

Can't we all just get along? Yeah, I find myself leaning more toward the green-grass side of Couple B, but I like to think that Couple A isn't completely diabolical for living out a microculture that's so popularly acceptable at the macrocultural level (even though Dad from Couple B said something about Mom from Couple A being birthed when "Lucifer lifted his leg"). As difficult as a mutual menu can be to achieve, it's not that far off from the multiculturalism that's broadcast to a modern, democratic American society in the form of racial ethnicity, national origin, spiritual belief system, etc. The possibilities for balance are well within our grasp, but the world is definitely spinning out of control.

In the end, the question will stand: Who will be the most grounded in our shared reality? Hopefully, we all will; not just humans, but also the hipster canines in their tight sweaters, and chickens in the fryer at your favorite fast-food restaurant.

Grilled

Nothing brings the heat through the summer months like a backyard barbeque. It was always my experience that the Fourth of July in Philly really evokes folks' pyromania and taste for all things grilled. For vegetarians and carnivores alike, however, this can be an incendiary, controversial topic that makes for an ultimately fun-filled conversation piece at any event!

For me---especially as a vegan---a good old-fashioned barbeque doesn't have so much to do with the scent or flavor of burnt flesh as it has to with the meaning of family and community interaction, among people in the flesh. We, too, are members of the animal kingdom---and we crave the concept of spending time with others, as much as we crave the crust of blackened edibles upon our tongues. Unfortunately, I don't know of too many people doing this kind of thing this year; Joselle and I definitely aren't. Is it that barbeque traditions are fading fast---or does it have to do with a growing trend toward the privatized, compartmentalized, self-serving tendencies of our human species?

Times are changing fast. With supposed advances in technology, humans certainly aren't getting better at the whole civilization thing---and this includes where food's concerned. Many of us aren't sharing the picnic table like we used to; something of which I'm also guilty. Case in point: Here I am, composing a computerized note, while daydreaming about what I'm going to eat at Kingdom of Vegetarians or New Harmony Vegetarian in a short bit...by myself.

I guess I should rather be skipping about town, picking vegetable kabobs from the sky, throwing them on to the flames, and inviting fellow food consumers to join me in the shade of trees that sprout from our ever-changing planet. Yes, I'll definitely try to get around to doing that right after lunch!