PCRM WORLDWIDE
Diabetes in India…
In January, PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., traveled to India to lecture at medical schools and hospitals across the country. Vegetarian diets have a long tradition in India, but meat-heavy Western diets have recently moved in, bringing diabetes and other typically Western diseases along with them. Dr. Barnard encouraged participants to help their patients adopt a low-fat vegan diet and offered them resources, including modified versions of traditional Indian dishes.
…and Australia, New Zealand
In December, Dr. Barnard took his powerful approach to preventing, controlling, and reversing diabetes to Australia and New Zealand. He shared findings from his latest studies, showing that a low-fat vegan diet can help patients cut their blood sugars, improve insulin sensitivity, and reduce or even eliminate their medications.
Fostering Compassion in South Africa
 This past spring, PCRM animal behavior expert Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., spent two weeks in South Africa encouraging people to rethink how we treat animals.
Since his groundbreaking book Pleasurable Kingdom was published in 2006, Dr. Balcombe has been crisscrossing the globe spreading his message of compassion toward animals. Pleasurable Kingdom shows that life for animals means much more than simply survival.
Reducing Animal Testing Around the World
PCRM is also working on a global scale to encourage humane alternatives to toxicity testing using animals. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an international body that coordinates testing policies from various countries. PCRM serves as the Elected Secretariat of the International Council for Animal Protection in OECD Programmes (ICAPO), which encourages OECD to incorporate alternatives to animal use in chemical testing.
 PCRM’s Chad Sandusky, Ph.D., and Kristie Sullivan, M.P.H., coordinate ICAPO’s activities and work to build influence at OECD. Several proposals ICAPO has submitted to OECD for consideration since PCRM became Secretariat have been adopted by member countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. OECD also has an innovative new research database, the QSAR Toolbox, which allows scientists and regulators to easily access information about the potential toxicity of a chemical. The QSAR Toolbox is a direct result of ICAPO’s efforts to reduce animal testing.
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