Planteaters – A Plant-Based App for Navigating a Carnivorous Planet!

By Danielle Bussone

Planteaters, a newcomer to app scene, directs hungry diners to meals from a variety of veg-friendly, though not necessarily vegan and vegetarian restaurants. It can be downloaded for free from www.getplanteaters.com. Planteaters is the brain child of Dave Hersh from New York City who developed it out of a need to, as he says, “scratch his own itch.” He found since becoming vegan four years ago he usually has to make greater compromises than his meat-eating friends when dining out together, often having to order a salad or abstain from eating altogether.

Hersh saw a need for an app which will direct diners to restaurants which offer plant-based meals as well as meals for their carnivorous companions. It is worth noting there are a number of non-vegan restaurants out there that offer excellent vegan meals. For example, Dave mentions a restaurant near where he works that offers the best vegan burrito he’s ever eaten and the name of the restaurant means “Three Meats!” Planteaters is the only app available which focuses on individual meals as opposed to vegetarian or vegan restaurants per se.

Planteaters iPhone App

Dave and Tracy Hersh, Dave’s wife and partner in this endeavor, were on and off again vegetarians until four years ago when his high cholesterol numbers and an unfortunate turkey incident caused him to rethink eating meat. Unfortunate turkey incident? Okay, I’ll bite…

The last traditional Thanksgiving the two experienced involved a turkey and a leaky disposable aluminum baking pan. Add a bit of heat to the recipe and what resulted was a foul smelling, greasy oven mess which took the entire day to clean up. This incident, along with Dave’s unhappy cholesterol numbers, coincided with Tracy’s reading of two books, T.Colin Campbell’s, “The China Study,” and Alicia Silverstone’s, “The Kind Diet,” which had a significant impact on the couple. These synchronistic events became the impetus for the two becoming vegans and, eventually, to the founding of Planteaters.

Dave and Tracy Hersh
Founders of Planteaters

Dave has a technical background and has created three startup companies with friends from college with whom he continues to work. Planteaters is a labor of love to which he devotes what little free time he has. “I think it is cool that I can change my life and have it turn into a career which is fulfilling, satisfying and meaningful.”Hersh makes no money from this venture and it is completely free for users. There is no advertising on the app. “This is not to say I don’t want it to eventually grow into a business with an income stream. I plan to add an android platform and a web platform in the near future. It is currently only for mobile devices. For now, it is possible for me to operate it indefinitely for minimal costs and I’m okay with that.” Dave can see it becoming a more community-based enterprise offering social connections, vegan products, forums and more.

Planteaters App

Rich and I have already become Planteater addicts who not only use the app but plan to contribute to it regularly. We hope you’ll check it out and help to spread the word about your own excellent plant-based food finds. As always, you can count on Veggin’ Out and About for more comprehensive reviews.