Deep Seed

Fabio Vicino takes you on a 2 min tour of his Market Garden 🌱 In our recent conversation on the Deep Seed podcast, he demonstrated how it is possible for young people without farming experience to leave their city lives and jobs behind and make a living from growing food. Choosing a purpose-driven job has helped Fabio improve his mental health and feel happier. I am convinced that working in harmony with nature can be a powerful solution to the growing mental health crisis. Better incentivising young people to start their own small scale market garden operations could be a powerful solution to many of our problems: · Improve mental & physical health (of both growers and eaters) · Increase biodiversity  · Increase food security & resilience  · Build ties with local communities · ... help me grow this list in the comment section 😇 ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Listen to the fascinating conversation I had with Fabio Vicino on the latest Deep Seed podcast episode to find out more! Available on all streaming platforms 🎧 (or by clicking the link in the comments below)

Two years ago, Fabio Vicino & Anna de Vos decided to leave behind their city lives and jobs to start a Market Garden just 20 min outside of Amsterdam - Onze Groenteboer. They had almost no farming experience and had to start learning from scratch. They followed short courses and quickly set out to find a piece of land where they could start growing food. They eventually found a 0,7 hectare plot attached to a farm that they could lease for a fair price, collected 40.000€ through a crowdfunding campaign, and started their very own market garden. When there's a will, there's a way! 🎧 Listen to this week's episode of the Deep Seed to find out more 🌿 ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ This podcast was produced in partnership with Soil Capital, a company that supports #regenerativeagriculture by financially rewarding farmers who improve soil health. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ If you enjoy listening to the Deep Seed, you can support my work in just 10 seconds 🙏 1. Click the ‘follow’ button (Spotify / Apple Podcast) 2. Leave a 5⭐️ review Thank you so much! Raphael Esterhazy

Imagine walking into a grocery store, picking up two tomatoes 🍅 and using your phone to instantly determine which one is more nutritious. This might sound like science fiction, but it’s a vision that Dan Kittredge and his team are making a reality. Dan believes that empowering consumers with this information will create a massive shift in the food industry. Indeed, if shoppers can easily choose the most nutritious options, the demand for higher-quality food will skyrocket. ➡️ This will push the entire supply chain to prioritize nutrient density over sheer volume or appearance. And since we've established that soil life / soil health is the only correlating factor for nutrient density, this would be a massive boost towards a truly regenerative food system 😍 Personally, I’m extremely excited about this prospect! What do you think? ————— Listen to the full episode of the Deep Seed with Dan Kittredge, available on all streaming platforms 🙌

The Bionutrient Food Association has been studying nutrient variation in foods, and the results are just astounding! · The 🥕 with the most sulfur had 4x the sulfur content compared to the one with the least. · The 🥕 richest in phosphorus had 8x more phosphorus. · The 🥕 with the most polyphenols had 20x more. · And to add the 🥕 on the cake: for antioxidants it was as much as 40x 🤯 Similar results were observed across the 20 different foods studied. And what’s the ONLY common factor driving these differences? SOIL LIFE 🪱 The key determinant of nutrient levels is the life within the soil. Healthy, vibrant soil leads to nutrient-rich crops, while poor soil health results in lower nutrient content, regardless of other factors. By understanding and improving soil health, we can significantly boost the nutritional value of our food. Which is amazing news because it means that human health and environmental health are perfectly aligned 😍 The food as medicine and regenerative agriculture movement can move forward hand in hand. A really exciting prospect for the future! What do you think? ———— Listen to the fascinating conversation I had with Dan Kittredge on the latest Deep Seed podcast episode to find out more! Available on all streaming platforms 🎧

New episode 🌿 After extensively studying 20 different foods, Dan Kittredge from the Bionutrient Food Association established 3 key facts that could disrupt the entire food system! 1. There's a massive variation in nutritional content for identical foods. For example, an 🍎 could have up to 10x more vitamins or minerals and 40x more phytochemicals than another 🍎 from the same variety. 2. The only correlating factor for nutrient density is SOIL LIFE. Yep, microbes are your new best friends! Imagine an army of billions of workers working tirelessly to find nutrients in the soil and feed them to plants in exchange for sugars. The more you have, the better. 3. They've successfully created a handheld meter that can measure the nutrient density of any food by just pointing at it. While it's expensive today, we can easily imagine a not-so-distant future where this would be a feature included in our smartphones, giving us the power to choose the foods holding the most nutrition. Conclusion: This could change everything! If consumers start choosing the foods with the most nutrition, and nutrient density depends on soil health, this gives a huge financial incentive for the food industry to switch to regenerative practices. What an exciting prospect 😍 🎧 Listen to my conversation with Dan Kittredge on the latest Deep Seed episode. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ This podcast was produced in partnership with Soil Capital , a company that supports #regenerativeagriculture by financially rewarding farmers who improve soil health. Please help me grow the podcast by 1. clicking the ‘follow’ button (Spotify / Apple Podcast) 2. leaving a 5⭐️ review Thank you 🙏 Raphael Esterhazy

I don’t believe in technology-based solutions. Here’s why: Trees are incredibly high-tech: they capture CO2 from the air, H2O from the ground, and use (free) energy from the sun to make glucose and oxygen. That glucose is then used as a building block for the tree to grow or sent to the roots to feed beneficial soil life. Effectively capturing and storing carbon with little to no human input and only free energy. Now compare that to Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies. They are very expensive, require a lot of materials and energy to build, and are energy-hungry. At present, they actually release more carbon into the atmosphere than they capture. The arguments in favour are: 1. The technology will improve over time and become more efficient. 2. In a (future) world where 100% of our energy is from renewable sources, the energy issue is alleviated. 3. The carbon can be stored permanently deep underground. And I think these are all fair points. However, there’s more to the story… trees do a lot more than just store carbon! They also: 1. Improve air quality: Trees filter air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and nitrogen oxides. 2. Regulate water cycles: They absorb and store rainwater, reducing runoff and preventing soil erosion. 3. Improve biodiversity: Trees provide habitats and food for countless species of animals, insects, fungi, and plants. 4. Regulate climate: They help moderate the climate by providing shade, cooling the air through transpiration, and reducing the urban heat island effect. 5. Provide food: Trees produce abundant nutritious food—fruits, nuts, berries, mushrooms, and more! 6. Provide biomass: Trees can be used as building material, for energy, or for textiles. 7. Cycle nutrients: Fallen leaves create a nutrient-rich humus layer, improving soil fertility and structure. 8. Improve our health: Trees have been shown to improve human health and well-being, reducing stress and promoting recovery. I could keep this list going for a while—that’s how incredible trees are! The climate emergency is now. It makes no sense to invest billions and vast resources in technology that might help us in 10-20 years. Instead, we should invest that time, money, and energy in nature-based solutions: · Reforestation · Agroforestry · Regenerative Agriculture · Rewilding · Conservation · Restoration We have these amazing, tried, and tested solutions ready to deploy. I say let’s go all in! Who's with me? ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ 🎧 Listen to the fascinating conversation I had with Christian Holzleitner on the latest Deep Seed podcast episode to find out more! - Search for ‘Deep Seed’ on Spotify or Apple podcast  - (or) click the link in the comments below

Two of the biggest issues with the voluntary carbon market are additionality and permanence. Let me explain: - Additionality - A huge number of carbon credits are sold to protect forests from being cut down. They don’t actually remove any additional carbon from the atmosphere. Imagine you’re a landowner with zero intention of cutting down your forest. But you saw your neighbor get paid big money for not cutting theirs. If you’re smart, you’ll just say, "Hey, I’m going to cut my forest too. Wanna pay me so I don’t?" Enters a big company with ‘ambitious’ climate neutrality goals, buys your credits, pretends they’re doing good. But actually, not a single gram of additional carbon has been removed from the atmosphere. The CRCF will only allow credits where there is increased biomass and actual carbon removed. - Permanence - Imagine you buy degraded land and plant a forest. You certify the amount of carbon you’re removing from the atmosphere and then sell those certificates. Bad luck, 5 years later a forest fire burns the whole thing down. What now? The credits have already been sold. The money has been spent. What do we do? The CRCF mandates the use of buffer pools. For example, if 100 credits were issued, only 80 might be sold initially, with 20 kept in a pooled reserve where thousands (or millions?) of other carbon removal projects have also pooled their buffer. The certificates that burned down are now void, but they are replaced by fresh credits from the pool. - Want to know more? - We discuss this topic in much more detail in the latest episode of Deep Seed with Christian Holzleitner, Head of Unit for Carbon Removals at the EU Commission. 🎧 It’s available on all streaming platforms! (link in the comment section below)

Pretty much all the biggest companies and countries in the world have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (or earlier). There are two ways to get there: 1. Reduce emissions as much as possible 2. Remove carbon from the atmosphere Experts agree: we should focus on reducing emissions first and only then use carbon credits to offset the remaining emissions. But many companies skip straight to buying carbon credits to 'offset' their emissions. Here’s the problem: these credits are traded on the 'voluntary carbon market,' which is unregulated. This allows companies to claim they are green by buying cheap credits that often have zero positive impact on the climate. Not all carbon credits are bad. Some organizations do amazing work! For example, Soil Capital works with farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture who improve soil health and store carbon in the soil. They measure and certify using a solid methodology and they focus on insetting rather than offsetting. In this case, buying certificates to lower your scope 3 emissions within your supply chain makes sense. However, buying random credits for projects like protecting an allegedly endangered forest in the Amazon doesn’t help much. That brings me to today’s topic: the EU Commission is developing a framework for robust, trustworthy, transparent, and permanent carbon credits. It's called the Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF). I had the privilege of discussing this with Christian Holzleitner, the head of unit for Carbon Removals at the EU Commission. He’s leading the team working on this new framework. I found our conversation was fascinating. We discussed how the CRCF could boost the transition to regenerative agriculture and agroforestry by rewarding farmers and foresters for their efforts. A key highlight was our debate on nature-based 🌱 vs. technology-based 🦾 carbon removal solutions. I pushed quite strongly for nature-based solutions, and while Christian agreed, he also offered some interesting counterarguments. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Listen to the full conversation on the latest Deep Seed podcast episode to find out more 🎧 Available on all streaming platforms!

New Episode 🌿 I had the privilege to meet with Christian Holzleitner to discuss how carbon markets can drive the transition to regenerative agriculture and significantly impact our fight against climate change. We address the challenges of the current voluntary carbon market and the importance of developing a robust and transparent certification system to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of carbon removal efforts. One highlight of the conversation is our debate about nature-based 🌱 vs technology-based 🦾 carbon removal solutions. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Listen to the full conversation on the latest Deep Seed podcast episode to find out more 🎧 Available on all streaming platforms (link in the comments below) ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ This podcast was produced in collaboration with Soil Capital, a company that supports regenerative agriculture for food system resilience and climate action by financially rewarding farmers who enhance soil health.

In our latest episode, Tommie Hooft van Huysduynen shares how PROTEEN’s compost is changing the game in agriculture. Here are the key highlights: 🌱 Superior Fertilizer: Proteen’s compost outperforms both chemical fertilizers and traditional compost in yield and gross profit, making it a powerful organic solution for farmers. 🚚 Efficient Waste Management: Instead of transporting water-heavy organic waste (70% water!) to factories, they process the waste on-site, cutting down costs significantly. 🌾 Soil Health: using Proteen's organic compost enriches soil health, enhances biodiversity, and creates more resilient farming systems. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ Listen to the latest Deep Seed episode to learn more ❤️ (link in the comments)