Original Recipe: Vegan Chicken and Broccoli over Spaghetti

Alright. So first things first, the name isn't 100% accurate. Honestly, you can use whatever pasta you want. Of course, whatever noodles I use are going to be gluten-free as well, and I prefer using more string-like noodles like fettuccine, angel hair, or even pad thai noodles (obviously not with pad thai sauce for this.) But like I said, really any pasta will work. This is a variation of a favorite recipe in my family, and my family has traditionally used spaghetti.

So what you will need:

• a regularly-sized package your choice of pasta, cooked (gluten-free if needed)
• 2 cups unsweetened alternative milk (I prefer flax milk)
• 2 tbs. corn starch
• 2 tbs. vegan butter
• garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste
• 1 small package of frozen broccoli, thawed (you can use broccoli with other veggies mixed in)
• 1 package of vegan chicken, chopped to bite-size (Beyond Meat is good for gluten-free people)
• vegan cheese, parmesan or mozzarella 
• microwave-safe pan that will hold all the pasta and also fit in the microwave, greased
• large microwave-safe bowl

How to make it:

• In microwave-safe bowl, melt vegan butter into alternative milk.
• Add cornstarch to the butter and milk, and whisk until evenly mixed.
• Add garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste.
• Mix thawed broccoli and chopped vegan chicken with the cream sauce.
• Spread cooked pasta evenly over the bottom of the pan. 
• Pour chicken, broccoli, and sauce over the pasta.
• Sprinkle on desired amount of vegan cheese.
• Microwave for 10 minutes on high or until veggies are hot. 
• Allow to cool to an edible temperature, and enjoy!

WOAH! That's so simple! Really. It's not very hard. It's also very satisfying because it has carbs, veggies, and protein all in one dish. If you want to look fancy, you can serve it with salad and / or vegan garlic bread, or you can eat it by itself.

Let me know if you tried it! Let me know if you made any alterations or substitutions, and how they turned out! If you have any pictures or reviews on this, I'd love to see them. I want to know what you thought. 

Runway Wednesday: Vaute Couture

Before I start, I'd just like to apologize for posting this so late in the day. But, OMG. I am so excited to know the results of PETA's 2014 Vegan Fashion Awards! Looking at the winners, I'm really inspired. If you haven't already read the results, check them out here. I really think I might have found some new favorite brands. I think I'm already addicted to Vaute.

 I need it in my life. Here are some of my favorites (women's wear) currently on their website:

The Lisa In Waxed Canvas-Multiple Colors (This was the Women's Outerwear Winner)

Kristina Dress In Organic Velvet-Black

I Can't Even Look At You In That Fur Boyfriend Sweatshirt-Grey

Love Is Mighty Pumps

As a side note, the children's wear is adorable, and the men's wear is very striking. I wish I'd been able to purchase a certain extra-long, black peacoat for my boyfriend. Unfortunately, it's sold out, and I'm a poor college student. I never could have afforded it. 

Quite honesty, I probably would have included links and pictures to practically every item on the site, but that would take the fun out of it for you! If I didn't post your favorites, leave the link in a comment! I'd love to see what you love! May all of your hearts be full of love, and my all your endeavors be fabulous!

Original Recipe: Nearly-Instant Taco Wrap

So, this is a really basic, simple recipe. I'm pretty sure a 5-year-old could make it without even making that much of a mess. I don't know why, but I've been craving tacos a lot recently. And so I make them. And I keep on wanting them. Does that mean they're my favorite food? I don't even know. Maybe it's because these are actually pretty good for you, and they're so ridiculously filling. I make them gluten-free and vegan, (obviously,) and they're super-easy to make free of whatever else you need it to be free of. They could be a snack, or a meal. That all depends on how hungry you are, and how much you make.

What you will need:

soft tortillas
vegan taco filling (as in fake meat)
vegan sour cream
vegan cheese
fresh spinach

What I use:

Food for Life (Ezekiel Bread) Brown Rice Tortillas

Tofurkey Chorizo Grounds

Tofutti sour cream

Daiya Cheddar Shreds

And spinach. 

What to do:

Place a tortilla on a microwave-safe plate. Spread desired amount of vegan cheese out over one side of the tortilla. Add desired amount of taco filling in a column on the center of the tortilla, leaving about 1.5 inches of space from the end on one side. Microwave for 30 seconds to a minute. Add desired amount of spinach on top of the column of taco filling. Add desired amount of sour cream to the column as well. Fold the end with space up and the sides in so that you can eat it with your hands. Enjoy!

Here's what mine looked like:

Words. Cannot. Describe. (And I will proceed at an attempt at verbal description anyway.) This is really super-amazing. I still don't know if it counts as a recipe. . . Because You aren't really COOKING anything. . . Whatever. This counts. So good. I said it was pretty good for you at the beginning of my post. It is. veggie crumbles / taco filling has a TON of protein. Fake cheese also has lots of protein. I'm pretty sure even vegan sour cream has a decent amount of protein. And let's face it, as delicious as iceberg lettuce is, spinach has way more goodness in it, like iron, calcium, antioxidants, etc. 

I'd love to see pictures of your own taco wraps! If you made these, let me know how it went! What did you think? Did you like it? Is it your new favorite thing? Did you make any awesome changes? Hit me up! Leave a comment. Can't wait to hear how things went!

Runway Wednesday: Improving the Duct Tape Mannequin / Dress Form

Alright, so some of you might be wondering: This girl is a fashion major at university. Surely she has access to REAL mannequins. Why would she want a form made of duct tape? Isn't that a little bit amateur? (Now, some of you probably had no idea I am a fashion major, or you just weren't wondering. Just hold on.)

For those of you who WERE wondering, I do have access to regular dress forms at school. So why am I interested in duct tape dress forms? Well, first off, I don't like having to go in to school to use the mannequins, since I'm a town student, and they right size form is hardly ever available. Also, the sewing lab at my school has really stupid hours.

 Second though, I actually PREFER duct tape forms for couture garments. Why? I'm glad you asked! While the mannequins at my school have moveable shoulders, which is really nice for putting clothes on them, they are very standard-shaped. That's cool for ready-to-wear clothing. But for custom clothing, things get difficult. 

Let me explain. My favorite design method, especially for custom designs, is draping. (As opposed to flat patterning.) For those of you know don't really know what that means, it means that I use magic to throw fabric at a mannequin and turn it into a piece. Actually, It just means that the garment is shaped directly on a mannequin without a pattern. Duct tape mannequins are just as customized as the model or customer, because you're basically using duct tape to cast their exact shape. So, you know the garment will fit them. Additionally, regular forms tend to have very shallow layers of stuffing before you get to a hard shell. This makes it difficult to stick pins directly into the form. Duct tape forms are stuffed without a hard shell, so you can push pins right in, very easily. This is really convenient for draping, since you need the pieces to stay in place while you're shaping the garment. Personally, my dress forms look like giant voodoo dolls while I'm constructing clothes. I need those pins to stay there. Another big advantage of duct tape forms is they display those custom garments better, due to the custom fit. Displaying a couture garment on duct tape? Isn't that a little trashy? I don't think so. There are plenty of decorative tapes if you want to make things look nice. You can also sew fabric covers for the dress form, or you can decoupage decorative (or minimalist) paper over the duct tape to make it look professional.

So, why do YOU need a duct tape mannequin / dress form? Well, maybe you don't. But if you're into DIY projects, they frequently require pinching / folding / pinning / cutting fabric on yourself, and it's a whole lot easier if you have a body double. If you make a lot of your own clothes, it's nice to have a custom fit, and it's nice to be able to display projects you're not currently wearing. Even if you don't make your own clothes, they make good decorations! You get to feel really fancy if you display your favorite ensembles on a mannequin, and all your friends will be jealous. Or, you can display things you don't get to wear frequently, such as prom dresses, wedding dresses, bride's maid dresses, costume / cosplay outfits, or any other ensembles that you obviously wouldn't wear every day, instead of putting them in storage or hiding them in the back of your closet.

Well, now that we've covered that, let's move on to the real purpose of this post. I'm not going to actually tell you HOW to make one of these things. How rude. Why not? Because there are TONS of tutorials on the internet. I don't need to just be a repeat. This post is all about how I'm making these dress forms BETTER. The basics are the same. I have 5 tips for you to make sure that you have the best duct tape dress form that you can!

Tip #1: Wear a giant trash bag under the tape. Some tutorials will tell you to wear a t-shirt that you don't like under the tape. You cut through the shirt and it is destroyed and lost when you remove the form from yourself. I don't care if you don't like the shirt. That's a waste. There are much cooler things you can do with shirts. Especially shirts that you don't like. That's why I suggest wearing a cheap trash bag under the tape. The best length for dress forms / mannequins that aren't a whole body is to cut off approximately where the fingertips reach on the thighs and go up part of the way up the neck, and out to the edge of the shoulders. Because whatever you're wearing under the tape will shift as you put the tape on, you might end up needing two bags, or perhaps one trash bag with a grocery bag taped to the bottom. But if you use shirts, this will ruin two shirts potentially, and that's just sad. And let me tell you, you do have to wear something under the tape. I don't even want to think how painful it would be to get the form off without a barrier in between the tape and your body. Oh, and girls, wear a bra under the bag and the tape. Just be really careful when you cut the form off. That way whatever garments will fit you with a bra on, whether it's built in or separate. I guess if you'd rather not, that's your business. 

Tip #2: WRAP THE TAPE COMFORTABLY! People. This is HUGELY important. The first time I made a duct tape form, I wrapped it really tightly because I thought that all the layers of tape would build up and make all my pieces too big. Guess what? They didn't. What ended up happening is my clothes were too tight and I had to let everything out. Not cool. Another reason to put the tape on comfortably is you'll squish your body into the wrong shape. My first form was really lopsided, lumpy, and weird-looking. Tragic. This is especially important if you're a girl, which is probably the majority of you (or at least your models and customers.) Remember what I said about wrapping too tightly changing the shape? You want your chest to be the right shape. If you wrap too tightly, you'll lose the definition of the chest and end up with an awkward uniboob look, and nothing you make will fit. This is just a NO. In order to make sure you have that shape right, you must use pre-cut pieces of tape. It also might be helpful to carefully cut the pieces down the length of the tape, that way you can be more precise. This technique is also helpful if you're wanting to make a mannequin with separate legs instead of a true dress dorm. 

Tip #3: Don't skimp on the tape. My first dress form was only 2 layers thick, which meant it didn't keep it's shape well. I've had a lot more success with 4-5 layers. I wrap 3 layers while it's on the model, and then seal up the holes, and add another layer over the whole thing. A bonus tip about the top layer: wrap it the cross direction of your other layers. (Up and down instead of side to side.) This adds strength to the dress form. If you wrap all the layers in the same direction, gravity will pull your mannequin apart. Here's a work-in-progress example of wrapping cross grain:

(The tragic dress form with the red tape did not have cross-grain tape, and kept pulling apart. That's why there's red tape. I had run out of the silver tape, and I kept having to repair it with the red.) Another reason to add a layer over the top after the dress form is sealed up is because sometimes after you've stuffed it, you find spots that didn't get enough stuffing. For me, this is almost always the neck and chest. I frequently have to cut it open again, and add more stuffing to those places. I tape it back up when I'm done, but the final layer helps make sure that won't pop open. Wrap a cross-grain layer even if you're going to decoupage over it all. There is no such thing as too strong when it comes to these things.

Tip #4: Don't spend a ton of money on fancy stuffing. You have to pack the stuffing in really tightly, so you almost always end up needing more than you expected. Some tutorials will tell you to stuff your form with Fiber Fill. Well, you'll need a TON of that stuff, and it's not always very cheap. Others will tell you to use wadded newspaper, but that's not always very effective. An easy filling is destroyed hosiery. My mom had a ton of stretched out and torn pantyhose and tights around the house, and she was perfectly happy to let me get rid of them for her. I also use fabric scraps that are too small or ugly to do anything with. A great place to find these is around a serger if you have one. Yarn, string, and thread scraps are also good. If that's not enough to fill up your form, my go to stuffing is paper from the shredder. If you don't have enough paper shreds, go through your junk mail stack. I'm sure you'll have plenty of shreds in no time. With so many options for filling, there's no reason to spend money on it unnecessarily. Admittedly, sometimes I have to use some fiber fill when adding stuffing to the neck and chest, but if you don't want to do that, save your fabric and string scraps for that. It's just really hard to get paper shreds in re-opened holes. 

Tip #5: Put something solid in the neck to help it keep the right shape. I didn't think about this when I made my first duct tape dress form, Marie Antoinette, and she had a tragic, untimely ending. See:

This is just sad. Duct tape is pretty strong, but it's not THAT strong. What I suggest to put in the neck is a peanut butter jar lid. It's about the right shape as it is, but if it's not quite big enough, you can always use another kind of lid, or you could wrap a bit of duct tape around the outside of the lid until it's wide enough. Here's a dress form I made with a lid in the neck:

Isn't that so much better?

It's also helpful to put something sturdy inside the shoulders, waist, and hips. I suggest hangers. If you don't want to waste your good hangers, there are plenty of stores that give you the hangers that come on the clothes. (Kohl's is one I can think of off the top of my head.) You can also use broken ones, like if the hook is broken off. Regular hangers are good for the shoulders and hips, and small skirt/pants hangers are good for the waist. If you can't find one small enough, you can just break a cheap hanger down to the right size. If you don't put these in to stabilize the form, the shoulders might droop, and the waist and hips will round out. What I mean by that is, they'll squish in at the sides, and out at the font and back. You don't want a sausage dress form. 

I really hope this was helpful for you! If you would like to share any additional tips, or tell me whether these worked for you, I'd really love to hear it. Leave me comments! If you thought these tips were useful, share the love! Share this post with your friends! I really do love hearing your feedback! It's nice to hear that what I'm doing is worth my time! Now go out there and create something amazing!

Food Finds Friday: Chocolate Edition

As I've mentioned recently, I've found some pretty impressive things in grocery stores recently. REALLY impressive. For any chocolate lovers out there, (this should be just about everyone in existence,) I've found some absolutely DELICIOUS ready-made chocolatey desserts. (Are you drooling yet?) I'm going to be sharing 2 items that are both gluten-free, and vegan. Both can be found for sure at Whole Foods, and probably several other health food stores. Are you ready?

Set?

LET'S GO!

1. Zen Pudding



This pudding if so rich, you'll forget you're a poor college student. Or maybe that's just me. This stuff is really great though. I totally enjoyed it. I had to make myself ration it out, or I would have eaten the whole pack of four in one sitting. They have several flavors, including chocolate, vanilla, chocolate and vanilla, and chocolate almond milk (depicted above.) It is a tiny bit more on the expensive side though. While I really enjoyed it, I probably won't buy it often, especially when there are several Vegan College Cookbook recipes for chocolate pudding, such as Break-Up Pudding! If you make the pudding yourself, there's more to go around. So, my final verdict is: it tastes great, but the price is not right.

2. The Piping Gourmets Whoopie Pies

For the love of everything beautiful in this world, thank you for existing. So far, I've been able to try the first 3 flavors from the left. Let me tell you: they are amazing. If I had to choose between being rich and famous and having a lifetime supply of these, it would be a pretty tough toss-up. They come frozen, and personally, I think they taste best thawed, but they taste fine frozen too if you really cannot wait. If you're cooking dinner though, and you get one out to thaw while you're cooking, it'll be ready for dessert. These are so rich, and so yummy. It's very difficult to describe them with words. If you spoke whoopie pie, I'd get one out and roll it around on the keyboard so you'd know. . . These taste perfectly real, except for that they're so good, it's unreal. They don't have that I'm-an-allergen-free-version-of-a-delicious-food taste to them. I have no idea how to make something this delicious! I'm perfectly happy to buy them. I think this is love. Final verdict: Oh, kale yeah.

Alright, well I'm going to wrap this post up now, because I want to go eat another whoopie pie after talking about them so much. I hope these product reviews were helpful! If you have any products to suggest for review, leave a comment saying what I should try!

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Missing Blogger Found

So, as my readers probably remember, I had been blogging a cook-through of PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. You may also remember my new posts getting scarce to nonexistent. Apologies. I really do want to finish what I started with that. But frankly, I was starting to get a little bored with it. The recipes were great! I enjoy them! I enjoy writing! The only problem is, things were getting to be a lot of the same. I mean, the food was different, but every time, I'd say "Hi people! I made this thing to eat! This is what you need! This is what I used! Photo! Delicious! Yeah!" And that was getting boring to write. And the book has 275 recipes to write about. That's a lot. So I realized my lack-of-motivation problem was stemming from a lack of diversity.

But I'm not a quitter! So I've come up with a plan to make my blog more exciting! I'm going to add in a new series or two, (maybe more,) to get my creativity flowing. So far I'm thinking about perusing one for cruelty-free cosmetics. This could be tutorials, product recommendations, tips, tricks, whatever. I was also thinking about doing one for awesome food-related finds. Frankly, as easy as TVCC recipes are too make, i just don't always feel like cooking. So these finds could be awesome ingredients, or it could also be amazing things that I never realized existed! (Some of the things I've found will  really impress you.) I'd also love to write about fashion, and how vegans cam still be amazingly trendy. This one is near and dear to me. I'm a fashion major. I might also start blogging original recipes more, or improvements of recipes. I'm also very open to suggestions. I'd really love to hear what you people want me to write about. I don't want to disappoint!

Again. I apologize for going M.I.A. but I think this is exactly what I need to get out of this stupid rut I'm in. I'm really excited about this! Keep a look out for updates very soon!

CTTVCC: Ants on a Blog

This delicious snack is one I've enjoyed since childhood. Eating this again brings back memories of my nana making these for me when I was knee high to a grasshopper. (Pardon the funny expression. I don't really ever use it but it makes me laugh because it makes me think of cute little old ladies in the South.) My nana always cut the celery smaller so that it was more kid-friendly. I used to get these when coming home from dance lessons. Ah. . . Memories.

The recipe calls for:

• 2 stalks celery, cut into sticks
• 1 box raisins
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter

Here's what mine looked like:

The only thing I changed about this recipe was using dried cranberries instead of dried grapes. I mean, I did also use the sugar-free kind, just to be a little healthier, but whatever. For those who may have peanut allergies, or just want to try mixing this up a bit, you could use crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth, or any kind of nut or seed butter that you wanted. My favorite non-peanut butter is sunflower seed butter. Let me tell you, it is amazing. (I have also heard good things about pumpkin seed butter, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet. I might end up having to make some myself next fall after carving jack-o-lanterns.) Anyway, this is a super-simple, super-satisfying recipe that's great for snacking on without getting your hands that messy. Enjoy!

Sushi Salad

So, I'm a huge fan of sushi (vegan, obviously,) but I don't have one of those fancy sushi-roller-things, and getting sushi from a restaurant gets kind of pricey. It adds up pretty quickly if you get it on a regular basis. Now, I don't mind going out to a fancy sushi restaurant where I can get fancy things that I can't make for myself, or don't want to anyway, for special occasions or dates, but just your standard pre-made veggie sushi, I've kind of decided that it's not worth it. Now, recently, I've seen a lot of "deconstructed sushi bowl" and "sushi salad" recipes for and I decided to give it a go. Actually what happened was, I saw that my parents were cooking rice, and I was eating seaweed snacks, and I thought to myself: "Self, it would be so cool if I could eat some sushi." And then I thought, "But wait, it would taste the same whether it's all just a mess in a bowl, or if it is neatly arranged into little rounds. I will make a mess in a bowl." And so a mess in a bowl I made.

It was so delicious. But as I was saying, that was the messy version. I did make it look nicer first. But I'll post a picture of that later. I'm going to tell you how to make it. It's kind of up to you how you put it together.

What You Need:

• cooked rice
• seaweed snacks, torn into small pieces
• chopped carrots, avocados, cucumbers, or whatever vegetables you like in sushi
• soy sauce (gluten-free if you need)
• gluten-free, vegan fish or tofu (If desired)

What To Do:

• put everything into a bowl in the proportions you desire

I wish I'd had cucumbers, but I used avocado, chopped carrots, and gluten-free, vegan fish. obviously I used rice and seaweed, and my soy sauce was gluten-free. Here's what it looked like:

How pretty is that? I thought it was pretty. . . well. . . pretty. And you can put as much or as little of any ingredient as you want! So you can make it really easily. Personally, I didn't have to go to the store to buy any ingredients. I just used what I already had. So, I didn't have to spend any extra money. Also, it was incredibly satisfying, and I felt full, but not over-stuffed. It was a great balance, and I feel like it had a lot of good nutritional value. It doesn't take that much effort really, and you could honestly put even less effort than I did if you were just feeling extra lazy. No judgments. I hope you guys like this recipe as much as I did. I think if I was stranded on a desert island and I could only have one food, this would be in the running. For sure. Anyway, good luck! Enjoy!

Expanding Beyond Animal Experimentation

Alright. So, as an introduction, today I will be posting a digital version of a research paper I wrote for my English 102 class last semester. I may or may not re-post it in like, a year. Reason being, this paper was turned in and revised several times, and the final time it is turned in, the teachers do not give it back for a year for some legal reasons. It didn't make sense to me, but whatever. So basically, I can't check to see what updates and revisions my teacher suggested for a while, so I might revise it when I do get the paper back. Of course, I wrote my paper about animal testing, and so I've been dying to share it with the people who care heavily about animal rights. I didn't feel like waiting that long to share it. You may remember that about 2 years ago, when I was first starting this blog, I wrote a research paper showing all the benefits of going vegan. This is a similar format to that, only it's a different side of the animal rights movement. I was honestly surprised how little my friends and classmates, even teachers knew about animal testing. I don't remember ever being that in the dark about the topic. It really opened my eyes as to how much people still have to hear about this to realize it's a big deal. I am fine with people referencing this paper, sharing it, etc. as long as I am attributed for it. Thank you.

Expanding Beyond Animal Experimentation

by

Kerry Marley

December 12, 2013 

Humanity has a long history of experimentation on animals, especially in the medical and cosmetic professions. Many people argue that humanity would not be where it is today if it were not for its reliance on animal experimentation. It is nigh unto impossible to deny that animal testing has ever been useful, although the argument could certainly be made that such a method was not always necessary. However, with advancements in medical and scientific technology, animal testing is no longer a morally defensible practice.

First, animal experimentation is an abusive method. Insufficient regulation about procedures that can be done to animals allows for abusive experiments. Abuse can be defined as excessive cruelty (willfully subjecting others to pain and suffering) or habitual violence. Abuse is allowed in research because “the only U.S. law that governs the use of animals in laboratories—the Animal Welfare Act—allows animals to be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged” (“Animal Testing is Bad Science” [1]). These methods are undeniably abusive and cruel, because the suffering is intentional. In Practical Ethics, Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher and professor on the ethics faculties of both Princeton University and University of Melbourne, alludes to British philosopher Jeremy Bentham who famously proposed that “‘the question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?’” (57). Singer follows up on this question by stating that “defenders of experiments on animals do not deny that animals suffer. They cannot deny the animals’ suffering because they need to stress the similarities between humans and other animals in order to claim that their experiments may have some relevance for human purposes” (Singer, Animal Liberation 40). Singer also points out that United States military “experiments were designed so that many animals would suffer and die without any certainty that this suffering and death would save a single human life, or benefit humans in any way at all” (29). The fact that these experiments would have no benefit to humans certainly qualifies them as excessive, therefore abusive. Possibly the ultimate example of the cruelty of animal experimentation methods is that of the decompression chamber. As Singer notes, decompression chambers were researched in Nazi Germany on other humans. Sadly, later, the experiments were repeated in England on pigs. “All suffered decompression sickness, and some died from these attacks’” (Animal Liberation 83-84). This research was abusive because it caused excessive suffering. When the research has already been documented, even unethically, there is absolutely no excuse to repeat it for curiosity’s sake. As the saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right.

Insufficient regulation about treatment of animals in testing allows for abusive handling. According to Matt Rossell, who formerly worked for Eliot Spindel, a medical researcher in the field of the effects of consumption of nicotine, pregnant monkeys were “subjected to multiple surgeries to implant nicotine pumps in their backs. . . and their babies are cut out of their wombs. . . to dissect their lungs (“Help End,” [1]). If that isn’t bad enough, Rossell continued by saying that he “‘witnessed some of the mothers post-surgery with the same signs of clinical depression that women suffer from after going through the emotional tragedy of losing a stillborn baby’" (“Help End,” [1]).  Again, willingly forcing distress and pain on another being who is capable of feeling pain is cruel. The experiments were not even intended to study maternal depression, so forcing the animal mothers to experience excessive suffering is abusive. Spindel’s experiments are just one example of cruel treatment of animals in testing. Even more generally, “no experiment, no matter how painful or trivial, is prohibited [by the US government] – and pain-killers [sic] are not even required (“Animal Testing is Bad Science” [1]). Santa Clara University published an article which states that annually “An estimated eight million [animals] are used in painful experiments. Reports show that at least ten percent of these animals do not receive painkillers” (Andre, Velasquez [2]). Ten percent of eight million is a minimum of eight hundred-thousand animals who are not given painkillers during painful experiments, which is an excessive number.

Second, animal experimentation is an ineffective method. Animal tests are inaccurate because of differences between animals and humans. According to In Defense of Animals, an organization that seeks to protect animal welfare, “in the case of nicotine's effect on infants born to smoking mothers, it is clear that such information could be mined from human clinical studies—and would have direct relevance to humans” (“Help End” [2]). Animal testing was harmful to humans by failing to discourage the active harming of unborn children. The animal tests gave mothers a false sense of security and a wrong belief that their habits were not harmful to their babies, when in fact, the truth is exactly opposite. In fact, “Animal data is so unreliable, that for decades, the tobacco industry used it to ‘prove’ that nicotine is not harmful. It was only through human studies that the link between tobacco consumption and cancer, heart disease, and other pulmonary illnesses was proved” (“Help End” [2]). The use of animal testing in this regard was unhelpful to humans because it failed to show the link between nicotine consumption and disease, thus failing to accurately warn people of potential health dangers. Sadly, these examples are not the only instance of failure of the results of animal tests to accurately translate for human biology. In fact, “The Food & Drug Administration tells us that 92% of drugs tested safe and effective in animals fail in human trials” says John J. Pippin, M.D., who is on the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He continues with the example of Vioxx, a medicine developed for treating arthritis which “killed more Americans than died in the Vietnam War, yet it was deemed safe in eight studies using six animal species. Many drugs have had severe and even lethal effects in people after demonstrating safety in animal tests” ([1]). This lack of direct correlation is not news. According to Peter Singer, it is common knowledge “that extrapolation from one species to another is a highly risky venture. . . . As well as exposing people to harm, testing on animals may lead us to miss out on valuable products that are dangerous to animals, but not to human beings.” Singer continues to mention the examples of insulin, morphine, and penicillin (Animal Liberation 57). Pippin adds aspirin and acetaminophen to the list ([1]). In this lose-lose situation, animal experimentation is an inaccurate predictor of the effectiveness of medications. The evidence seems to suggest that any benefit from animal experimentation in this regard is marginal at best.

Animal tests are inaccurate because the testing environment skews the results. An essential part of conducting a viable experiment is to allow for only one variable. However, the testing environment is in and of itself a variable not accounted for. According to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, “stress, routinely experienced by animals in labs, negatively influences the reliability of animal research data. Stress influences heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, muscular activity, and hormone levels and can modify the normal values of these variables significantly” (“Limitations” [1]). The research environment is therefore interfering with the animals’ normal body functions. If normality cannot be established, then a change from the normal state cannot be quantified either. Stress is not the only affected factor. “In one study, researchers discovered that not only is stress a common factor for mice in labs—just having a researcher present can alter a mouse’s behavior—but they also experience ‘sympathy pains’ for the mice surrounding them. ‘In other words, seeing another mouse in distress elevates the amount of distress the onlooker displays’” (“Limitations” [1]). The research environment makes the mice actively behave differently than they would whether they are by themselves or with other mice.  

Finally, animal experimentation is an outdated method. Much of the developed world has deemed animal testing unnecessary. For example, “a complete ban on the sale of cosmetics developed through animal testing has taken effect in the European Union. The ban applies to all new cosmetics and their ingredients sold in the EU, regardless of where in the world testing on animals was carried out. The 27 EU countries have had a ban on such tests in place since 2009. But the EU Commission is now asking the EU's trading partners to do the same” (“EU Bans” [1]). Essentially, the vast majority of Europeans deemed animal testing unnecessary and undesirable. As of yet, the ban enacted in 2009 has not hindered the continual development of Europe, and European women can still wear safe, good-quality makeup if they so choose. Transitioning from the cosmetic industry to the medical industry, “Australia, Japan, and the E.U. have already banned or limited experiments on great apes in medical research” (Biba 14). Additionally, because other methods have been deemed better, “the National Institutes of Health announced that it is phasing out experiments on chimpanzees” (Biba 14). These changes, presently limited to great apes, seem to point in the direction that the medical field will go.

Many viable alternatives to animal testing exist. Much of the world is abandoning the use of animal experimentation, but the discontinued use of this method of research and testing will not leave the medical and scientific realm without ways to discover new data or verify data and safety of products. “Effective, affordable, and humane research methods include sophisticated in vitro, genomic, and computer-modeling techniques as well as studies of human populations, volunteers, and patients“ (“Alternatives” [1]). According to Popular Science article “From Chimp to Chip,” by Erin Biba, institutions have created, or are developing, tissue and organ models on chips that effectively model human reactions (14). Additionally, alternative methods of research tend to be cheaper than animal experimentation because they don’t require purchasing, housing, feeding, and maintaining living creatures. The existence of these methods makes any need for animal testing obsolete.

As Bishop Desmond Tutu once famously said, "There's nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep." Although the world is still only beginning to realize the moral indefensibility of animal testing, some simply do not want to know. As has been evidenced, ignorance is certainly not bliss, especially for the animals being researched on. There is however, a brighter, more ethical future in sight for research and discovery. Because animal experimentation is clearly unnecessary, it is no longer morally justified.

Works Cited

Andre, Claire and Manuel Velasquez. “Of Cures and Creatures Great and Small.” Issues in Ethics. V. 1, N. 3 (1988) Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Alternatives to Animal Testing.” PETA. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Animal Testing Is Bad Science: Point/Counterpoint.” PETA. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Biba, Erin. “From Chimp to Chip.” Popular Science Dec. 2013: 14, Print.

“EU Bans Sale of All Animal-tested Cosmetics.” BBC News. 11 March 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Help End Nicotine Experiments on Monkeys at OHSU.” Vivisectioninfo.org. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Limitations and Dangers.” NEAVS. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Pippin, John. “Put Animal Testing to Sleep: Pro: Misleading Conclusions, Wasted Money.” Bloomberg Business Week. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. 1975. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Print.

---. Practical Ethics. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge UP. 1993. Print.

New Year's Resolutions and Contest

So everyone, there aren't necessarily a ton of things that I've resolved to do this year. I don't want to just have an ever-growing list of things that I'll never do just because I've resolved to do them. I don't really have any health resolutions. I mean, I'm already vegan. What else is there? I guess I could theoretically resolve to stop cheating my gluten-free diet, but I don't really have an ethical problem with gluten, and they make magic pills that can help you digest gluten occasionally.

I have resolved to post more on this blog, especially Vegan College Cookbook reviews, which I guess could be food-related, and thus health-related, but that's really a stretch. But I got a seriously nicer camera for Christmas, so the photo quality on this blog should be improving! YAY! I have also resolved to be more active for the causes and charities I care about, especially animal welfare. But I guess because everyone needs one resolution that they don't mind not keeping, I also resolve to keep my room cleaner. Ha ha ha! Oh, that's a good one. So, that's not an exhaustive list of my resolutions, but too many of them would require context explanations that it's not worth bothering to mention them.

I hope you've made some resolutions that you plan on keeping. Though, as a tip, make them realistic. For example, I would not resolve to be the #1 Pop star in America by the end of the year. First of all, pop isn't even my favorite genre. Like, at all. But that's beside the point. However, I also wouldn't make them so boring or non-specific that they're not motivational, such as resolving to be "a better person" or resolving to smell more flowers. Unless of course, that's your thing. And then, by all means, smell away. I hope you're not allergic to pollen. Basically, make sure it's something that can be accomplished to your satisfaction. If you're really not sure what you want to resolve, but you want to resolve SOMETHING, here's a list of suggestions:

• Plant a new tree or shrub by the end of the year.
• You can buy a tree already sprouted (as long as you have permission from the powers that be,) or if you're up for a bigger challenge, try starting out all the way from a seed. Avocados are a good choice if you aren't sure what to go with. First of all, you can make yourself some yummy guacamole to get the pit to start out with. Second, the plants themselves are very pretty.
•  Plant a veggie garden.
• The best part about planting your own garden is picking what veggies you want to grow. Then you get really inexpensive, fresh food once it's grown. If you don't really have a yard to plant a garden in, like if you live in a dorm or apartment, or maybe your parents don't want you to dig up their nicely manicured lawn, you can plant window-box gardens, or potted plants. Those are great for smaller plants or herbs. I'd recommend rosemary and basil if you're not sure what to go with, but you want something small.
• Complete 5 Actions per month at Peta2.
• This one is really easy because the people over at PETA have already dome the hard work for you by making posters, collecting email addresses and researching the details, etc. Plus, you earn points by doing all those things and you can get yourself free stuff with the points. Who doesn't love free stuff?
• Go Cruelty-Free!
• Maybe you already only EAT vegan, but you haven't made the switch with cosmetics, clothes, etc. There are so many great brands of cruelty-free products, and many of them are really affordable. 
• Go Vegan!
• If you haven't already done this one, it really has never been easier. There are so many recipes out there thanks to the internet, and veganizing existing recipes is also super-simple with the amazing options that are out there.
• Go Vegetarian!
• If for some reason, you can't go vegan yet, or would prefer to make the switch more gradually, this is a good baby step. Again, it's never been easier!  
• Go Organic!
• This one can be a bit pricey. But it's certainly more healthful than eating junk food. Though I guess they do make organic "junk" food. Eh. Whatever. Aldis and Costco have a surprising amount of organic options, which are inexpensive.
• Convince your Family / Friends to do Meatless Mondays.
• Maybe they won't go 100% vegan or even vegetarian. But there are a lot of doctors and specialists saying that giving up meat at least 1 day a week has a ton of health benefits. This might mean that you have to cook diner once a week, but I'm sure you've got some ideas that you're dying to try, right?
• Try one new vegan recipe per month.
• This could involve a bit of pre-planning, but trying new things can be a lot of fun, and if you have the Vegan College Cookbook, it can be really affordable too. 
• Stay Positive / Be Thankful.
• The holidays are coming to a close, and it's easy to get out of the habit of being thankful for small things in life, and to take the things you have for granted. One thing that I have found helpful is to get a notebook or journal and write down things that I'm thankful for / happy about. For example, a friend of mine recently had been struggling with depression, and I encouraged him to write down 5 things a day to be thankful for. You can write more or less things, and do it as frequently as you'd like. If 5 things a day is too much, you could do 3 things a day, or 5 things twice a week. The important thing is not to quit when you forget a day. Even if you forget a week. If you're ever feeling down or discouraged, read back through the things you've written, and you're likely to feel a lot better. Everyone I've ever gotten to do this has found it extremely helpful.

If you have any other good ideas for general resolutions you'd like to share, please leave a comment! I'd love to hear what you have to say.

So, whatever you've resolved, here is a motivational picture.

This is my cat, C3PO, who I adopted from my local animal shelter. He had already had one leg amputated when I found him, but he gets along without it pretty well, even if he looks kind of ridiculous when he runs. Anyway, the other day, he climbed on top of our giant old TV that was given away, and was acting like he had achieved the most amazing accomplishment possible. It was pretty much adoreable. This was just an excuse to post a picture of my cat.

Alright. So here's the contest part:

First, you must follow this blog by at least one method if you do not already. Next, using the contact form located in the right sidebar, send me your name and email address, and at least 1 activism-related resolution. The winner will be randomly selected by computer, but if your resolution is just "I resolve to be more active" or something like that, then you won't qualify. And trust me. You want to win. Why? Because here's what the winner gets (approximately $25 value):

•  2 stickers from Sevenly, a company which funds a huge variety of humanitarian organizations by selling super-cool shirts and other apparel
• 3 magnets made from Sevenly stickers that are great for lockers or mini-fridges
• 15 magnets made from PETA stickers that are also great for lockers or mini-fridges. 
• 1 customized bracelet made by me. You choose colors and specify size. The bracelet will appear similar to this one in my web store, only it will say "ACTIVIST" instead of a name. 
• The winner will also be featured on this blog with a photo, short biographical description, and their resolution. (The winner will be contacted for the photo and description, as well as the details of the bracelet after being selected. This will act as a conformation method.)

All entries must be received before February 1st 2014. There also must be more than 10 qualifying entries, or the contest will be canceled. If there are a large number of participants, I may add runner-up places with smaller but still awesome prizes. In the event of cancellation, a consolation prize will be available to any participants. I reserve the right to change the rules and awards at any time. I'm sorry if you don't think the prizes are cool. I'm a poor college student, remember?

Happy New Year, Everyone! Good luck! Feel free to comment and tell me what a great idea this is. Tell all your friends about this contest and encourage them to enter as well! Who knows. Maybe they'll share with you if they win.

*************** UPDATE: CONTEST IS CLOSED.