Veganism is a fast growing trend worldwide, and whilst many people thoroughly despise it, the movement shows no signs of slowing down, and this latest new law over in Portugal shows how far it’s come over the past decade or so.

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The new law stipulates that all schools, universities, hospitals, prisons and other public buildings must start providing an animal free meal option in their canteens. This needs to be implemented within the next six months or there’s going to be a problem.

The law was passed after a petition in 2015 amassed 15,000 signatures and had to be debated in Parliament. There’s a similar one going around the UK, although it hasn’t been as successful – needing 100,000 before April 3rd to be debated in Parliament, but currently only having around 17,000. Go and sign it if you feel like it’s something you want to see happen in this country.

There’s no denying what a breakthrough this is for veganism though. Nuno Alvim, a spokesperson for Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa, confirmed this by saying the following:

We feel this is a major breakthrough in Portugal because it’s the first time we have any law that specifically mentions vegetarianism.

It will promote diversity of eating habits and encourage more people to choose the veggie option as it becomes more widely available.

This is, of course, predicted to have a significant impact on the population’s health foremost, but also on animals and the environment in the long run.

Promoting the rights of the vegan population is as important as campaigning and informing people to adopt veganism, in our view.

Yeah I mean fair play to them. I’m sure a bunch of meat eaters will grumble about it, but ultimately they’re not trying to replace meat on the menu in public places, just making sure that an alternative is offered. I can’t see any problem with that really, can you?

Have you heard about the vegan fried chicken place yet? I’ve been and I can confirm it’s absolutely delicious and you can’t tell the difference.