Here’s What’s Happening in the Plant-Based World This Week: 

New York City jails, which collectively house over 7,000 inmates, have instituted Meatless Mondays, citing the potential health and environmental benefits of a plant-based diet. 

Road trip anyone? Lehigh Valley’s first vegan restaurant, VegOut Bethlehem, has opened its doors in Bethlehem, PA. 

Wayne State University’s School of Medicine in Detroit, MI recently hosted the first of a now mandated plan-based nutrition program for all first-year medical students. The curriculum was developed by PCRM [Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine] and the medical student-led plant-based advocacy group PBNG [Plant Based Nutrition Group]. The program is the first of its kind in the United States.

In its recently released “Year in Review Report,” reservation platform OpenTable recently reported that references to several plant-based related words, including “plant-based,” “vegan,” “jackfruit” and “impossible [meat],” have increased by up to 136 percent since 2017. In addition to reservations, users can also review restaurants on OpenTable, and it was noted that the term “vegan” appears in over 15,000 reviews per month.

A legal battle to watch: America’s first “vegan” butcher, the Herbivorous Butcher, was denied the trademark for the phrase “vegan butcher,” but Nestle-affiliate Sweet Earth was recently granted it. The brother and sister-run business are legally disputing the decision, asking that the trademark either be granted to them since they applied for it first, or be permanently kept in the public domain so other vegan butcher shops across the country may utilize it. 

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been named TIME’s “Person of the Year” for 2019. The 16-year-old, the youngest person ever to hold the title, was named for “inspiring a generation to fight the climate crisis.”

A case for ending the “vegan tax,” a surcharge to veganize food and drinks.

Million Dollar Vegan, a non-profit seeking to increase awareness of the benefits of a plant-based diet, has announced the campaign Make America Healthy Again. For every person who pledges to go vegan for January 2020, they will donate $1 to two animal sanctuaries. The campaign anticipates 100,00 people to sign up.