• Startups can also help people follow a more plant-based diet, for example by providing ingredients, ready-made meals, and recipes.
• This makes it easier to reduce meat and other animal products in everyday life, with significant environmental benefits.

World Vegan Day isn't just for vegans. Celebrating the plant-based diet on 1 November every year is a collective invitation to reflect on the impact of our food choices. After all, the food system carries heavy environmental costs that are systematically underestimated — all the more insidious because they are almost entirely absent from market prices: someone buying a steak or a litre of milk has no perception of the damage involved.

Producing one kilogram of protein from beef can require more than 350 square metres of land and generate up to 60 kg of CO₂ equivalent emissions — figures tens of times higher than those needed to produce one kilogram of protein from legumes. These numbers have been available since 2018, when research published in Science by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek lifted the veil on the food industry involving animals. Faced with this complexity, at the individual level the most powerful action remains adopting a predominantly plant-based diet, while at the systemic level there is an urgent need for reform that internalises environmental costs into food prices and redirects public subsidies towards regenerative agricultural practices. Because only by acknowledging the true price of food can we begin to repay our debt to the planet.

If protecting the Earth were not a compelling enough motivation, consider the health benefits, also backed by science. Even a partial transition towards plant proteins — as confirmed by the Lancet Planetary Health Report — can improve cardiovascular health. This means it is not necessarily essential to give up animal products entirely: diversifying is enough. Technology is making this choice more accessible than ever: as demonstrated by these five startups that, in various ways, make it easier to follow a more plant-based diet.

5 startups for embracing a plant-based diet

• Planted
• Humamy
• Choruba
• Beamy
• Planter

Planted

Whether they can be called burgers, steaks or sausages is an open debate — but perhaps not the most relevant one. What matters is that today there are companies offering plant-based alternatives to the most famous meat dishes. One of them is Planted, founded in Switzerland in 2019, which creates tasty meats from plant-based proteins. "We want to reduce the environmental impact of the traditional meat industry while offering tasty and healthy proteins. Our plant-based meat is made with only clean ingredients, is free from additives, and helps save a huge number of animal lives" — that is the claim of the company launched by Pascal Bieri and Lucas Böni. The steak, for instance, wins people over because it is juicy, contains natural ingredients, and has an excellent CO2 footprint: compared to conventional meat, greenhouse gas emissions drop by 97 per cent and water consumption by 81 per cent. Planted is B Corp certified and produces in Kemptthal (Switzerland) and Memmingen (Germany); its products are available in numerous supermarkets.

Humamy

Italy is doing its part too. Humamy is a startup from Montegrotto Terme, in the province of Padova, that delivers 100 per cent plant-based gourmet dishes to your door — meals that can be kept in the freezer for up to six months and are ready in just five minutes. Using gentle cooking techniques, rapid chilling, and storage at -18 °C, Humamy preserves the nutritional integrity of its ingredients: meaning the flavour and freshness are identical to a freshly prepared dish. With a menu that is renewed every month, it offers more than 35 seasonal recipes, balanced and approved by a nutritionist. By completing a quiz, customers receive tailored recommendations, or alternatively they can independently choose their dishes and put together boxes of 15, 25 or 40 portions at no extra cost.

Choruba

Chocolate hides a decidedly bitter side. First of all, cocoa production requires vast agricultural land, often obtained through massive deforestation, especially in tropical regions such as West Africa (where 80 per cent of global cocoa is produced) and the Amazon. According to WWF data, between 2000 and 2010 more than 2.3 million hectares of forest were destroyed to make way for cocoa plantations. Choruba replaces cocoa with carob, a drought-resistant Mediterranean fruit. Once fermented and roasted, its pulp (rich in fibre and antioxidants) becomes an alternative to chocolate — free from allergens and with a flavour similar to dark chocolate.

Beamy

The Italian startup Beamy, born from the vision of MartinoRossi, makes plant-based eating more convenient through simple and versatile dry mixes based on legumes. For example, the mixes for meat alternatives — such as veggie burgers and meatballs — are made with just four natural ingredients, free from gluten, GMOs, and soy. Rich in protein and fibre, these preparations have a shelf life of 24 months and an extremely low environmental impact, thanks to efficient production processes and local ingredients that reduce emissions and waste. Furthermore, a portion of the proceeds from each purchase is reinvested in reforestation projects in the Amazon.