Prince William serves up Earthshot Burger made of sustainably grown Indian veggies

Prince William recently took to the road to spread the message of his Earthshot Prize by serving up burgers made of vegetables

London: Britain’s Prince William recently took to the road to spread the message of his Earthshot Prize by serving up burgers made of vegetables grown sustainably by an Indian start-up, a former winner of the environmental prize.

Kheyti, which won the Earthshot Prize last year in the “Protect and Restore Nature” category for its Greenhouse-in-a-box innovation, helped create the Earthshot Burger for the royal for a road trip.

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It formed part of a partnership with the YouTube channel Sorted Food to spotlight the work of the Earthshot Prize, which has been created by the future king of Britain to help scale up innovative solutions to combat climate change.

“Indian start-up Kheyti has developed a Greenhouse-in-a-box to support small-hold farmers and shelter their crops from unpredictable elements and destructive pests,” notes the Earthshot Prize – an annual set of awards worth 1 million pounds.

“Plants that are frequently grown in a Kheyti greenhouse, including the vegetables used to make the Earthshot Burger, require 98 per cent less water and yield seven times more crops,” it said.

Kheyti Co-founder & CEO Kaushik Kappagantulu said they launched the concept to help some of India’s nearly 100 million small-hold farmers, among the poorest people on the planet and the most impacted by climate change.

“The world depends on its small-hold farmers and yet their lives are amongst the hardest on earth. Our Greenhouse-in-a-box is empowering farmers in India today,” he said on winning the prize at the end of last year.

The Sorted Food founders were invited by Prince William to review and test the innovations of Kheyti and two other 2022 winners to create the Earthshot Burger.

The resulting YouTube episode released over the weekend follows the 41-year-old royal and the Sorted Food team as they hit the road in a food truck.

“Prince William serves surprised members of the public the delicious new burger and offers some insight on the incredible innovations created by winners of the Earthshot Prize and their impact on communities around the world,” the organisers said.

The other winners from last year’s Earthshot Prize put to the test included UK-based Notpla which creates natural and biodegradable food packaging from seaweed to address the global challenge of plastic pollution.

While Notpla provided the packaging, Kenya’s Mukuru Clean Stoves were used to cook the burgers to test their cleaner-burning credentials.

“Being joined at our studio and in the food truck by Prince William was a real ‘pinch me’ moment – hearing him explain how passionate he is about helping the planet and what the Earthshot Prize is doing was incredibly inspiring, and has already given us a lot of ideas for future projects to work on with our community,” said Jamie Spafford, Co-Founder of Sorted Food, a UK-based food community.

With over 2.7 million subscribers on YouTube, Sorted Food is renowned for environmentally friendly food solutions and putting food gadgets through their paces.

The collaboration forms part of the Earthshot Prize’s new partnership with YouTube to produce content for the Earthshot channel to inspire users to drive action against climate change with stories of optimism from around the world.

“The Sorted Food mission is to bring joy to people through food and make a true difference to the world around us, and we know our community will be inspired to see and support the incredible work that the Earthshot Prize is doing to help people and the environment,” added Spafford.