Commensalist, Botanic Building, Bruxelles / Brussel (2026)

24/10/2026

🌍⛏️ 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬

The soil under our feet holds about three times more carbon than the entire atmosphere.

And every time a field is ploughed, nonorganic or organic, some of that carbon is exposed to air. The organic matter built up over years oxidizes, and part of it goes up as CO2.

How big is that? Soil scientist Rattan Lal estimated that since the mechanization of agriculture began a few hundred years ago, about 78 billion tonnes of soil carbon have been lost to the atmosphere. That's roughly seven years of today's global fossil fuel emissions.

So the climate tool we keep looking for is right under our feet. And we're breaking it open every season.

The good news: we know how to rebuild it.
🌾 Regenerative and organic farming that keeps the soil covered and disturbs it less
🌳 Agroforestry, which stores carbon in both the trees and the soil
🐄 Grassland and pasture in the rotation
🍂 Cover crops, compost and mulch that feed soil life

And you play a role too. Every time you buy food from an organic, regenerative or biodynamic farm, you support farmers who are working to put carbon back into the soil.

The soil is part of the solution. And the people working with it need your support.

I wrote about this in my new book, and I promise, a whole new world will open up for you.

📖 Read my book:
🇺🇸 https://books.by/louisdj
🇧🇪 https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/p/red-eerst-jezelf-en-dan-pas-de-planeet-9789020970616

23/10/2026

🐟🚢 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐲

On a train in Norway, I met a Brazilian woman. Her job? Selling Brazilian soy to salmon farms.

That surprised me. But farmed salmon eat pellets, and in Norway around three quarters of that feed now comes from plants. Soy protein concentrate is the biggest single ingredient, and Brazil is the main supplier.

And it's not only salmon. European pigs, chickens and dairy cows eat imported soy too. In Brazil, soy expansion is linked to the clearing of the Amazon and the Cerrado savanna.

So think about the journey:
🌎 Nutrients are pulled out of South American soils
🌳 Forests and savanna are cleared to grow more
🚢 The soy is shipped across the ocean
🐖 It ends up in our animals and our fish
💩 And the manure piles up here, with too many nutrients ending up in our fields, rivers and seas

Depletion there. Pollution here.

The EU has passed a law to keep products linked to new deforestation off our market, soy included. After two delays, it's set to start applying at the end of 2026. That helps.

But the bigger fix is closer to home:
🥩 Less, but better meat and fish
🐄 Animals raised on pasture and local feed
❓ And one simple question at the counter: what did this animal eat, where did it grow, and how was it grown?

Because before you know it, you choose salmon thinking it's the better option, while its feed helped clear a forest on the other side of the world.

One honest note: farming practices differ a lot between countries. Norway, for example, uses very few antibiotics in salmon farming, while Chile uses far more. Another reason to ask where your fish comes from.

I write more about this in my book.

📖 Read my book:
🇺🇸 https://books.by/louisdj
🇧🇪 https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/p/red-eerst-jezelf-en-dan-pas-de-planeet-9789020970616

22/10/2026

🥕🌾 𝐔𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝

A new UK report says many fruits, vegetables and cereals have lost 20% to 50% of some key nutrients since the 1960s. Headlines shortened that to "half as nutritious".

What the report says: Hollow Harvests, by Deep Science Ventures, points at high yielding varieties, declining soil quality and rising CO2.

Critics add that many people simply eat too few vegetables, and that the report's UK scenarios are modelled, not measured.

What gives hope: a 2022 PeerJ study comparing regenerative and nonorganic farms found more vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals in the regenerative crops. It is a preliminary study, and it points in the same direction. Healthy soil and healthy food belong together.

Which farms near you care for their soil? Ask them. 🌱

📖 Get my book:
🇧🇪 https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/p/red-eerst-jezelf-en-dan-pas-de-planeet-9789020970616
🇺🇸 https://books.by/louisdj

Sources:
Hollow Harvests, Deep Science Ventures, via AgNavigator: https://www.agnavigator.com/Article/2026/10/06/are-crops-really-losing-their-nutrients-or-do-we-simply-need-to-eat-more-of-them/
Montgomery et al., PeerJ, 2022 (PubMed): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35127297/

Credit: Image and idea via organisednutrition on Instagram.
Disclaimer: Daily Mail headline and image belong to their respective owners, shared for commentary.

22/10/2026

We show our pets compassion, recognizing their unique personalities and feelings. But what if we extended that same empathy to wildlife and animals raised in industrial farming? 🌱
In Episode 52 of the Food Forest Podcast, guest Pim Martens explores how empathy can transform our relationship with animals and the natural world.
🎧 Listen to the full episode:
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/food-forest-podcast/id1870837259
🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ylFpxff6dfY4PsRq8ZSc8
▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/cAG-_9jzrJQ
✏️ Show notes & more: https://www.commensalist.com/food-forest-podcast/episode-52

22/10/2026

🍓🍬 𝐀 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬

This is fruit leather. A natural sweet you can make straight from your own food forest, and it's really easy.

How I make it:
🍎 Put your fruit in a blender and blend it smooth
📄 Spread it thinly and evenly on baking paper
🔥 Dry it in a dehydrator, or in the oven on its lowest setting, around 60 to 70°C, for several hours
✂️ Let it cool, cut it into strips and roll them up

That's it. Children love it. And grown ups too, of course.

Put a piece in your mouth and it's an explosion of taste. All the flavour of the fruit, concentrated.

And the best part: it's just fruit. No added sugar, no colourings, no wrapper full of ingredients you can't pronounce. You keep the fibre and much of the goodness of the whole fruit. It's still sweet, so enjoy it as a treat, but what a treat compared to most sweets in the shop.

It's also a great way to use a big harvest. Too many plums, apples or berries at once? Turn them into fruit leather and enjoy them for months.

So put away the junk sweets, and let your kids snack on this instead.

Filmed at Food Forest de Woudezel.

Follow for more on soil, trees and food.

21/10/2026

🌿 Season Finale: Food Forest Podcast – Pim Martens: How Animals, Food, and Nature Shape Our Future

What does it take to create a food system that supports both human and planetary health? 🌍

We’re wrapping up Season 3 of the Food Forest Podcast with a thought-provoking conversation! In this final episode, host Louis De Jaeger speaks with Pim Martens, professor of planetary health, about the connections between humans, animals, food, and the natural world.

Together, they explore how food forests, agroforestry, and Indigenous knowledge can help restore ecosystems, why animals deserve a bigger place in sustainability conversations, and how we can rethink food production for a healthier planet.

In this season finale, Pim explores:
🌳 How food forests support biodiversity and resilience
🐾 What sustainimalism means for a sustainable future
🌱 What we can learn from Indigenous knowledge
🌍 Balancing local and global food systems
🤖 How AI and sensors can support food forest management
🔄 Why systems thinking matters for planetary health
💚 How individual choices can contribute to regeneration

🎧 Listen to Episode 52 now:
ApplePodcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/food-forest-podcast/id1870837259
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/5ylFpxff6dfY4PsRq8ZSc8
YouTube – https://youtu.be/cAG-_9jzrJQ

✏️ Show notes & more: https://www.commensalist.com/food-forest-podcast/episode-52

✨ This is the final episode of Season 3! Thank you for being part of this journey. We hope these conversations have inspired you to see food, nature, and our future in a new light.

21/10/2026

🐄🌰 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐬, 𝐉𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐥𝐧𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬.

Jan van der Veen from Radewijk in the Netherlands milked cows for forty years. In 2019 he made a big decision. None of his four children wanted to take over the dairy farm, so he swapped the cows for trees.

Today he harvests about 14 hectares of hazelnuts, with around 10,000 nut trees. And he's happy with the result:

🌰 "I now actually produce as much protein per hectare as I did with dairy cows."

🐦 "And I see more pheasants than ever on my fields."

The switch wasn't easy, he says, and he doesn't claim it's the only way forward. But nuts can be a real alternative.

A note from my side: how much protein a hectare of hazelnuts gives depends a lot on the age of the trees and the harvest.

But think of what you don't need for nuts: no imported feed, no barn, no daily milking at 5 am. And a nut orchard keeps producing for decades.

According to the AD, more and more farmers now show up at information evenings about nut growing, often together with their son or daughter, looking for a way to keep the family farm alive.

That's exactly what we saw while making Eat More Trees. Trees can give farmers a future, a healthier soil and a lot more life on their land.

Thinking about trees on your farm?
👉 www.commensalist.com

📖 Read my book:
🇧🇪 https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/p/red-eerst-jezelf-en-dan-pas-de-planeet-9789020970616
🇺🇸 https://books.by/louisdj

Sources:
AD (Algemeen Dagblad), 8 October 2026
AGF.nl: https://www.agf.nl/article/9881303/notenteelt-als-mogelijk-alternatief-voor-veehouders/

Shared by Greenpeace Nederland.

21/10/2026

🐻🔒 𝐀 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐮𝐬

I once visited a zoo in Siberia. There was a bear pacing back and forth, on exactly the same path, again and again.

Zoologists call it stereotypic behaviour. It's a well known sign that an animal is suffering from its confinement.

You could give that bear medication. You could give it therapy. It might help a little. But as long as it lives in that cage, it will never really be well.

And that made me think about us.

For most of our history as a species, humans lived outdoors. In nature, in small communities, moving our bodies all day, with a clear purpose.

Our modern environment is brand new: open plan offices, artificial light, screens, concrete, hardly any green. The brain running inside it is the same old one.

Today many people struggle with burnout, anxiety and trouble focusing. Diagnosis, therapy and medication help a lot of people, and they matter. But we rarely ask what our surroundings are doing to us. We rarely look at the cage.

The research on nature is encouraging. A study of nearly 20,000 people in England found that those who spent at least two hours a week in nature were significantly more likely to report good health and wellbeing. It didn't matter if that was one long walk or a few shorter ones.

So match your environment to your biology a bit more:
🌳 Get outside, into green spaces
☀️ Catch daylight, especially in the morning
🚶 Move your body
🤸 Play, have fun, spend time with people you love

The cage is real. And unlike that bear, you can open the door and walk out.

Follow for more on soil, trees and food.

20/10/2026

🍃🍎 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞

Meet comfrey. Its old name is knitbone, and its Latin name Symphytum comes from the Greek for "to grow together". People used it on sprains, bruises and even broken bones.

Gardeners love it for a different reason. It grows huge amounts of leaves, packed with nutrients, especially potassium. And you can cut it back several times a year.

Why does that matter? According to the FAO, it can take up to a thousand years to form just one centimetre of soil. Every bit of organic matter you give back helps.

How I use it:
✂️ Chop and drop: cut the leaves a few times a year and drop them under your fruit trees as mulch
🪣 Liquid feed: soak the leaves in a bucket of water for a few weeks. It smells awful, but you get a feed rich in potassium, great for flowers and fruit
🩹 Salve: make an ointment for bruises

But skip the tea. Taking comfrey internally is risky, so keep it for outside use only.

Which one to plant? Choose Russian comfrey 'Bocking 14'. It's a sterile variety, so it won't seed itself all over your garden. Just know that once it's planted, it's very hard to get rid of, because every piece of root can grow back. So pick its spot well.

Chop and drop is lesson one in soil building. Put the leaves on the soil a few times every season, and you'll see your soil get richer year after year.

Follow for more on soil, trees and food.

Commensalist

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