Commensalist, Botanic Building, Bruxelles / Brussel (2026)

15/10/2026

😱🧊 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡.

Did you ever lose your whole freezer in a power cut? You probably just bought new food. But what if the supermarket freezers fail?

That happened in France this week. Hackers broke into the refrigeration controls of hundreds of supermarkets, including Intermarché, Carrefour and E.Leclerc. They switched on the defrost cycle remotely, and fridges heated up to 50 degrees Celsius.

What we know:
🕐 Some defrost cycles ran up to eight hours to delay the alarms
🛒 Carrefour alone counted around 80 stores hit
🔥 Fires broke out, and Intermarché's CEO spoke of tens of millions of euros in damage
🔍 The Paris prosecutor opened an investigation
💻 The controllers came from Danfoss and Copeland. Many were old and no longer updated

What we don't know: who did it, and why.

A handful of suppliers, old software, and a whole country's cold chain wobbles in a single night. In peacetime. Imagine the same attack during a war or in the middle of a heat wave.

So here's my question: where would your food come from in a week like this?

A food forest in your garden doesn't need a firmware update. A nut tree can't be hacked. A cellar full of potatoes and homemade preserves keeps working when the network goes down.

What you can do:
🌳 Plant a fruit or nut tree this autumn, even on a balcony
🥕 Join a CSA farm and get to know the people who grow your food
🏛️ Ask your municipality what their plan is for a week like this

We need more regenerative, organic food systems close to home, rooted in living soil.

What's your move going to be?

Sources:
SecurityWeek: https://www.securityweek.com/supermarket-refrigeration-attack-widens-to-copeland-dixell-controllers/
ABC News (Reuters): https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-13/french-supermarkets-hacked-causing-fires-and-food-loss/107258724

15/10/2026

🌿🧭 𝐖𝐢𝐣 𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐤𝐞 𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧 𝐯𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐧

Bij Commensalist ontwerp je landschappen die voedsel produceren, water vasthouden, koolstof opslaan, het klimaat afkoelen en waar we bomen vooropstellen.

Van kleine stadstuinen tot privé-eilanden, van hospitality tot ecoresorts, van België tot in Argentinië, de Azoren tot in Spanje,...

We hebben vier mooie plekken, elk voor iemand met minstens tien jaar ervaring.

🌿 Landschapsarchitect met ingenieur mindset, sterk in berekeningen
🪨 Landschapsarchitect sterk in architectuur en materialisatie
🏞️ Landschapsarchitect met visie op grote (eetbare) landschappen
🚜 Landschapsarchitect voor werfleiding en uitvoering

Dit is je kans om echte plekken vorm te geven waar bodem, bomen, water, voedsel en ontwerp samenkomen.

Zin om mee te bouwen?
👉 Bekijk de vacatures hier: www.commensalist.com/nl/vacatures

15/10/2026

🏥🍃 𝐀 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫

In 1984, Roger Ulrich published a small study in Science that I still think about.

He looked at the records of patients recovering from gallbladder surgery in a Pennsylvania hospital. Same rooms, same care. The only difference was the view from the window. Half looked out on trees. Half looked out on a brick wall.

The patients with the tree view:
🛏️ Left the hospital almost a day earlier
💊 Needed fewer strong painkillers
📝 Got fewer negative notes from the nurses, like "upset and crying"

Many researchers have built on it since. Hospital administrators read it. And most kept building brick walls anyway, because trees don't appear on a balance sheet.

Let's do the math. In Belgian hospitals, the daily stay price alone is around 600 to 730 euros, before doctors' fees and medication. A young tree costs a fraction of that to plant, and it keeps working for decades.

Every landscape architect who plants trees near a hospital helps patients heal. Every planner who cuts them down makes recovery harder.

The tree outside your window gives you something no pharmacy sells. You feel it. Calm. Peace. A lower stress level. Science can measure it, and you can simply feel it.

So stop overthinking it and plant trees.

Go to your local hospital. Start a conversation. Ask them: "Why aren't you planting more trees? I want to help. Let me plant some."

Follow for more on soil, trees and food.

Thank you Roger Ulrich, for showing us over forty years ago what a window view can do.

14/10/2026

🧊🔥 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤. 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐬.

This week, hackers broke into the refrigeration systems of hundreds of French supermarkets. Overnight, fridges and freezers were heated to as high as 50°C.

What happened, according to Reuters and CNN:
🛒 Around 80 Carrefour stores, about 150 Intermarché stores, Monoprix and U were hit
🔥 Several stores had fires
🗑️ Food was thrown away, with losses that could reach tens of millions of euros in a single day, according to Intermarché's CEO
🌍 Stores in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were reportedly affected too

The French cyber agency ANSSI traced it to a weakness in refrigeration controllers from Danfoss. Who's behind the attack is still unknown.

It shows how much of our food depends on a few central systems. When one link breaks, shelves empty within hours.

So how many days could your town feed itself if the supermarkets closed?

Resilience starts close to home:
🌳 Fruit and nut trees in gardens, parks and schools
🥕 Local farms and short supply chains
🫙 Food that keeps without electricity: nuts, dried fruit, preserves, roots

A food forest has no firmware to hack. And walnuts keep for months in their shell, no fridge needed.

Want to make your land or town more food resilient?
👉 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:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/12/europe/france-supermarket-cyberattack-fridges-intl
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-13/french-supermarkets-hacked-causing-fires-and-food-loss/107258724

Image: CNN

⚠️ Disclaimer: This image is not my own and is shared for educational, non-commercial purposes only. All rights belong to the original creator. If you are the owner and want it credited differently or removed, contact me and I will act right away.

14/10/2026

🧅😴 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝. 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲, 𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭.

Back in 2015, a young woman on Twitter shared photos of her grandfather. He owns an onion farm and, every now and then, simply lies down between the rows for a nap. "He wins at life," she wrote.

More than ten years later, the pictures are still going around the internet. His name was never shared, but the image says enough.

When was the last time you lay down on the bare earth?

Most of us spend our days indoors, behind screens, far away from the soil that feeds us.

Farmers carry a lot on their shoulders: weather, prices, paperwork, long days. And still, the field can also be the place where you rest.

I love that idea. Land that you care for, that cares for you back.

That's what I hope for every farmer: a farm that's healthy enough, and profitable enough, that you can take a nap in the middle of it without worrying.

And for the rest of us: go outside this weekend. Lie in the grass, under a tree, in the leaves. Look at the sky for ten minutes. It's free, and it works.

Want a garden or farm where you'd love to take a nap?

👉 www.commensalist.com

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

🇺🇸 https://books.by/louisdj

Source: original tweet by (2015)

https://x.com/mckenziebrelyn/status/577578022355623936

Shared via

⚠️ Disclaimer: This image is not my own and is shared for educational, non-commercial purposes only. All rights belong to the original creator. If you are the owner and want it credited differently or removed, contact me and I will act right away.

14/10/2026

📞🚜 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐢𝐥

I met a Belgian farmer called José. For years he grew on contract: peas and other vegetables for the frozen food industry, seed for another buyer. Guaranteed sales. Sounds great.

Then came a very wet autumn.

The factory called: "We need your harvest by the end of the week."

José said: "If I drive heavy machines on my field now, I'll crush it for years."

Their answer: "Sorry José, then we'll go to another farmer."

That meant losing most of his income that year. He had kids to feed. So he harvested, and watched the machines press down the soil he had spent his life caring for.

This is one of the hidden reasons farmers plough. Compacted soil stops letting water through, and ploughing breaks it open again. A short term fix with long term damage. And research shows heavy loads on wet soil can compact the deeper subsoil almost permanently, where no plough reaches.

The timing is set by a supply chain that wants everything on schedule and as cheap as possible.

So José decided that was the last time a factory would decide for him. He went independent:
🚜 He sold most of his machines and kept one very good tractor, so less debt
🏗️ He built his own storage hangar and weighbridge
💶 Now he stores his harvest and sells when the price is right

And with that freedom, he switched to no till. Straw is chopped and left on the field as winter cover.

A few years later, he had stopped using insecticides, fungicides and growth regulators. And he hardly uses any synthetic fertilizer anymore.

His one policy wish: factories may only demand a harvest when the soil is ready for it.

As a consumer, ask the brands you buy from how they treat their farmers.

One of many stories in my new book.

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

Thank you José, for sharing your story and showing what independence can do for the soil.

13/10/2026

🎪🌳 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬. 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬.

Very proud of my friend Elisabeth Holt and her team behind Positive Trace Festival in Denmark.

This year around 700 people came together for five days at Hyllegård Høje to plant, build, learn and celebrate. Together they planted:
🌳 684 trees
🌿 66 bushes
🌸 1,210 plants
🪨 And they moved rocks and logs to create homes for wildlife, sowed countless seeds and helped build regenerative gardens

What I love most is what Elisabeth wrote afterwards: people left the festival with a feeling of hope. When conversations about climate feel overwhelming, doing something together with your hands makes all the difference.

Elisabeth also made the first edition of Ten Lives possible. I still remember her first LinkedIn message: "Louis, I have experience doing this in Denmark." My reaction was immediate: wow, this is amazing. We need festivals that regenerate the land all over the world.

Most festivals leave behind trash and trampled fields. Imagine if every one of them left behind a young forest instead.

Give it five to ten years, and these fields in Denmark will look completely different.

Thank you Elisabeth, for showing what a festival can be. 🙏

Source: Elisabeth Holt and Navus Events on LinkedIn

13/10/2026

🧡🥄 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧

This is the persimmon, or kaki. Its Latin name Diospyros is often translated as "fruit of the gods". And most people have no idea how to eat it.

Shops sell them hard and early, because that's the easiest way to transport them.

Some varieties, like Fuyu, are fine to eat crisp. But many varieties are packed with tannins until they're fully ripe. You bite into one and your mouth turns to sandpaper. So you decide persimmons are awful. And honestly, I agree, if you eat it before it's ready.

Here's the trick:
✋ Pick them hard
⏳ Then wait
🍮 Wait until it feels like pudding behind the skin
🥄 Cut it open and slurp it out, or use a spoon

So what do the Japanese do with all those astringent persimmons? 🇯🇵

They peel them, hang them on strings and gently massage them for weeks. It's called hoshigaki, a prized dried delicacy.

And those tannins? They don't go to waste either. In Japan, the fermented juice of unripe persimmons becomes kakishibu, a natural dye and coating for wood, paper and fabric.

Patience is a design skill. There's even a Japanese proverb about it: peach and chestnut take three years to bear fruit, persimmon takes eight. A grafted tree gets there faster, but you still need some patience before it really produces.

So you need a little patience to grow it, and a little patience to eat it.

At Commensalist we design food forests that keep on giving for generations, with trees like this one.
👉 www.commensalist.com

12/10/2026

🍄🕸️ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐭.

Mycorrhizal fungi live in partnership with more than 70% of land plants. They bring water and nutrients to the roots, and in return the plants feed them sugar. Every year, plants send an estimated 13 billion tonnes of CO₂ worth of carbon down into the soil through these fungi.

This map shows the two main types across Europe:

🟫 Ectomycorrhizal fungi, which partner with trees and dominate the northern forests and mountains

🟩 Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which live with grasses and crops on the plains

The worrying part: the Underground Atlas by SPUN, published in Nature in 2025, found that more than 90% of the world's fungal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas.

So most of this network sits under farms, gardens and parks. Ploughing tears it apart, heavy fertiliser makes plants stop feeding their fungi, and bare soil starves them.

What helps:
🌳 Plant trees and hedges, which bring the forest fungi back into farmland

🌾 Keep soil covered with plants all year round

🚜 Disturb the soil as little as possible

🍂 Leave leaves, wood chips and roots in the ground as food

Agroforestry and food forests bring both fungal types together on one field.

Want a garden or farm that feeds the soil life?
👉 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:
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1091761

https://europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/the-fungal-networks-hiding-beneath-our-feet

Map: The European Correspondent, article by Belle de Jong and Toon Vos

⚠️ Disclaimer: This image is not my own and is shared for educational, non-commercial purposes only. All rights belong to the original creator. If you are the owner and want it credited differently or removed, contact me and I will act right away.

12/10/2026

🐺🦫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

In 1995, fourteen wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park. More followed the year after.

You might know the famous story. Wolves hunted elk. Elk stopped lingering on the riverbanks. Willows and aspens grew back in places. Roots held the banks. On the northern range, beaver colonies went from one to twelve between 1996 and 2009.

This is called a trophic cascade. Change one species at the top and the effects ripple all the way down.

To be fair, scientists still debate how much of this was the wolves. Bears, hunters, drought and the beavers themselves played a role too. Nature is rarely a one animal story. But it shows how much one decision can set in motion.

And Europe is rewilding too 🌍
🏴 Scotland created 52,800 hectares of new woodland in the last five years
🇳🇱 The Netherlands built dozens of wildlife bridges over its motorways and railways
🇬🇧 The Knepp Estate in England has been rewilding 3,500 acres of former farmland since 2001

At Knepp, the results are amazing. In 2002 there were no nightingales at all. Now it's one of the densest nightingale areas in the UK, while numbers nationally dropped more than ninety percent since the sixties. Turtle doves breed there again, a bird that has declined about 99% in Britain. And Knepp has the largest colony of purple emperor butterflies in the UK.

Often the best thing we can do is step back, give nature space and help where needed. Search for rewilding online, it's incredible what you'll find.

But there's one thing. Rewilding doesn't work everywhere.

On very degraded land, like desert areas, you sometimes have to intervene. For example by bringing back livestock or other large grazers, just like Knepp does with cattle, ponies, pigs and deer. And planting trees is a good thing too, especially when you want food production, like in a food forest.

Follow for more on soil, trees and food.

Thanks to the Knepp Estate, Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell, for showing what rewilding can do.

Commensalist

15/10/2026

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