In 2023, we look for the future of our landscape
This is the second season of The Food Forest Cast, the year we explore how food forests are contributing to the society of the future. We're Frank Gorter and Marieke Karssen of Food from the Forest, and we're curious about the pioneers working on this. Are food forests going to change society and the landscape? We think so. How will this happen? That's the investigation of this year's podcast series.
Episodes 2023
Nicholas Geijer
Episode 34, 18-9-2023
What happens when young people just step into the new reality with all the legs and arms they have. Of extinct biodiversity, rising temperatures and their future? Will they then think and act like previous generations or will something new emerge? To ask the question is to answer it. The conversation with 25-year-old student, food forest owner and consultant Nicolaas Geijer starts off pretty ordinary, but ends with vistas we fifty-somethings didn't even know could be seen.
Kaat Biesemans-Hoogewijs
Episode 33, 4-9-2023
There you are, course certificate in hand and looking for new work and land. Kaat can tell about this search like no other because she has lived it.
And besides, she has a wonderfully fresh perspective on this world. In love with nature, good at connecting with volunteers and stakeholders, constantly learning, and meanwhile probably our first guest to land a regular job as food forester at food forest Natuurplaats Binnenbos in Driebergen.
Chantal van Genderen
Episode 32, 21-8-2023
Chantal comes from the art world but was increasingly drawn to greenery, permaculture and herbal medicine. When she moved from her little balcony in Amsterdam to rural Brummen in 2017, she not only got her first garden of her own, but was able to participate right away in the community food forest just established there. A delightful conversation full of interesting experiences, unusual perspectives, wise lessons, and a practical vision for the future.
Frank Heckman
Episode 31, 7-8-2023
Many food forests are not established and managed by one owner, but by a group of people. And so there is a group process and it is quite difficult to (continue to) do that well.
For years, social architect Frank Heckman of the Embassy of the Earth Foundation has been working on innovative ways to get groups to actually work together, and one way he does that is by reconnecting people with nature. Find out how that works in this podcast.
John Vermeer
Episode 30, 24-7-2023
Why is it that there are so many food forests in North Brabant? And that there's so much to do around food forests there, too? If you want an answer to that question, listen to this podcast with Mister Brabant John Vermeer. Packed with energy, tips and inspiration and all in all very instructive for those who want to replicate this miracle in other provinces.
Diderik Clarebout
Episode 29, 10-7-2023
Diderik is a modern, ecological food forest farmer. On his farm de Woudezel, about 6 acres in size, he grows a polyculture of live-through trees and shrubs, and over the years he has also developed some well thought-out business models. Anyone who wants to farm that way shouldn't want to miss this episode packed with real experience and lots of tips.
Martijn Ballemans, Wouter Veer and Geert van der Veer
Episode 28, 28-6-2023
During the well-attended Green Dream festival on June 24 and 25, 2023, Frank Gorter had a good conversation with three people at the same time. Of course the organizer of the festival, Martijn Ballemans, was at the table, but next to him was a combination that was very special: the founders of two new, hopeful, scalable and inclusive farm concepts: Geert van der Veer of Herenboeren and Wouter Veer, founder of Lenteland. What drove them to get here, but most importantly, how do they see the future of farming, agricultural transition and food in the Netherlands?
Bert DHondt
Episode 27, 26-6-2023
Bert would become a teacher but first made a life-changing trip to Australia in the 1990s. Then he decided to stay home. And turn his family's land into a well-nigh magical food forest that is now more than 20 years old. So this is how living in the future can be! Bert talks about this country and about how he became a teacher after all, but of many new Belgian and Dutch food forest owners.
Marly Bonten
Episode 26, 12-6-2023
We have now had quite a few conversations about creating and managing food forests. What their place is in the landscape and agriculture. But another big question is just as important, namely: what all can you do with the food that comes from a food forest? Will that really become a serious alternative to annual crops? Including bulk food. Marly has made this very question her life's work and can tell about it like no other.
Joke Feenstra and Frank de Gram
Episode 25, 29-5-2023
Frank, Joke and their funder found each other during course year 2019 of Food from the Forest. And then they developed a completely new revenue model, food forest startup model and organizational model that is ecological, but also social, scalable and replicable.
Marieke says it all in the podcast: they are the future. Listen to how this healthcare worker and marketer teamed up to become new farmers, community managers and politicians, and have already started two food forest projects and are providing several people with real jobs in a new economy.
Louis de Jaeger
Episode 24, 15-5-2023
Listener ... fasten your seatbelt! Because this episode takes you into the future at lightning speed. Sketched by someone who, at 29, has already completed several world trips, written two books, made several documentaries and runs several businesses.
How does he get it all done? What drives him to this enormous productivity? Why exactly these activities? And, how does he see the future of man on this planet?
Stijn Heijs
Episode 23, 1-5-2023
Business doctor Stijn Heijs started looking for ways to live sustainably and self-sufficiently. He came across food forests and was immediately sold. His living space became a food forest from the start. But, he also remained businesslike, of course. Where are the snags in the food forest grass? How can you make a living from it as a farmer? As a board member of Stichting Voedselbosbouw Nederland, he is digging into this very subject -as befits a business doctor- all the way.
Fransjan de Waard
Episode 22, 17-4-2023
One of the leading thinkers and pioneers of recent years is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his one-man company in 2023. A company in which he has spent all this time convincing people of the need to change. Live differently, work differently, use energy differently, eat differently, and grow that food differently, too. What is it like to look back? What hasn't changed and what has? And how does he see the role of food forests in that? Especially towards the future.
Marieke Karssen and Frank Gorter
Episode 21, 3-4-2023
After a few months of winter hibernation, we will once again search for answers. And, like last year, we start with ourselves. What are we working on? What would we like to know and discover this season? And, how do we hope to solve the agricultural and food issues of our time? Precisely because the pressure on the landscape is increasing and also because more and more people are becoming aware of the dynamics surrounding the agricultural transition, this year we want to ask our guests even more about their vision of the future. Starting with ourselves, in other words.
Episodes 2022
Jelle Fekkes
Episode 20, 26-12-2022
In the final episode of season 2022, we talk with Jelle Fekkes. As a landscape architect, he has developed into a food forest designer, although he likes to call himself a systems thinker. It is important to him that we give the makeability idea of modernism its proper place in our landscape, but also that we apply Vitruvius' three starting points (functionality, soundness and beauty) in our designs. As a teacher, he encourages people to get to work in their own environment without becoming too dogmatic.
Madelon Oostwoud
Episode 19, 12-12-2022
Looking for food forest literature in the Netherlands, you can't ignore Madelon Oostwoud's books. In her publications, she manages to combine practical and useful information about creating and managing food forests and food forest edges with beautiful illustrations of her own hand. She talks about how drawing helps in making a design, about how she taught Amsterdamers how to compost in her small backyard, and of course about her own food forest Schellinkwoud.
Marc Buiter
Episode 18, 28-11-2022
Marc Buiter calls himself a sustainability generalist. That sounds very innocuous, but in his case it means a lifetime of hard fighting to make agriculture more sustainable. And he prefers to fight at a certain level. So that it at least makes some headway.
A podcast with an impressive man who is sure to make you think big.
Max de Corte
Episode 17, 14-11-2022
Max de Corte has never actually "become" anything, but through many jobs, ever new startups, urban agriculture, transitiontowns and very early introduction to permaculture, he has become, of course, one of the country's great food agriculture experts.
In this podcast, he tells his uniquely interesting life story and lards it richly with a refreshing vision of the future.
Jeroen Kruit
Episode 16, 31-10-2022
Scientific research on the many yields of food forests is difficult. Not only because virtually all food forests are young and all different, but also because you're talking about multi-year research, and that's a problem by definition. Scientists who buckle down in this for years we call heroes. On top of that, Jeroen Kruit is better able than anyone to connect and strengthen all the different trends and research within the food forest world.
Weruschca Kirkegaard
Episode 15, 17-10-2022
In this conversation, we quickly move beyond the topic of food forests and also internationally. Weruschca is from Denmark, has been a lifelong entrepreneur, worked for many years as an interior stylist and in the food sector, and from a very personal motivation has been bringing all that experience, energy and qualities to the world of permaculture and especially international and large-scale regenerative landscape design for several years now.
Malika Cieremans
Episode 14, 3-10-2022
In the category of food forest pioneers, you can safely call Malika a Pioneer. She has been concerned with trees, subsistence living, native populations, food and ecological agriculture since she studied forestry in the 1990s. She has traveled extensively and seen large forests and both vital and many forms of impoverished ecosystems. She now translates that experience into her current work and research on food forests. This talk could have gone on for hours. But even in these 54 minutes, you get a lot from her unique perspective on life, health and our future on this planet.
Bastiaan Rooduijn
Episode 13, 19-9-2022
Bastiaan can't be pigeonholed into one. He is a plant nut, food forest builder, ecologist, designer and researcher, but above all a very driven ideologue full of thoughtful and very particular visions of his own. He is our youngest interviewee, but having been involved with nature and plants almost since childhood, we certainly did not experience his opinions as young. Bastiaan thinks deeply about the landscape, science, nature and agriculture. So he is -in short- a real pioneer and a scientist at heart who should definitely not be missed in this podcast.
Piet Moerman and Hilde Eylenbosch
Episode 12, 5-9-2022
This extraordinary Belgian couple who have been living and working together for a lifetime changed course drastically and extremely well a few years ago. They quit their careers as biotechnologists, bought 4.5 hectares of agricultural land and are developing various permaculture and agroforestry systems in such a way that they are scientifically verifiable. They want to inspire and convince farmers, scientists and policy makers in Belgium with the real facts and figures of these innovative agricultural systems.
Martijn Ballemans
Episode 11, 22-8-2022
Having grown up in a Vinex neighborhood, and changed course after a crazy trip around the world, Martijn Ballemans is now a much sought-after permaculture and food forest educator. Not only does he know a lot about the content, but because of his background in education he also knows about didactics and teaching methods. Our conversation was about choices, about the future, about agriculture and perhaps above all about dreams with focus.
Sjef van Dongen
Episode 10, 8-8-2022
Sjef has a unique, energetic and positive view on the food transition. This tenth podcast is therefore bursting with great ideas and delicious one-liners. But our conversation also went into great depth. Just as easily, actually. Where does his vision come from and how did he build his companies? How did his thinking grow? And how does Sjef look at the future and his role therein?
Slogans like 'One Planet, Plant it' and 'People can't go from straight to round in one go' already show that Sjef himself is completely round and at the same time simply reaches out to everyone who thinks straight and leads them to a fantastic green future.
Arne Driessen
Episode 9, 25-7-2022
How do we make the world of the future financially possible? How do we keep agriculture and food forests in particular profitable and within the human scale? How do we teach entrepreneurs and financiers to think differently about impact, interest and exits? Arne can not only talk about this in a fascinating way, he also puts his money where his mouth is. Together with his mother, he invests the family fortune in a way that helps food forest entrepreneurs and growers in surprisingly beautiful entrepreneurial ventures on their way to profitable, healthy businesses.
Vincent Bogaart
Episode 8, 11-7-2022
Vincent is able to build unique bridges. He grew up in nature, but also has extensive experience in the world of chemistry and finance. He speaks the language of all these worlds. But, best of all, he not only talks, but has embarked on a path in which he lives, works and eats entirely according to his vision of the future. In search of a way of life in which we humans once again fit within the possibilities of the planet.
Heleen Eshuis
Episode 7, 27-6-2022
You start a food forest for the next 400 years and therefore for all generations of the future. Starting with the children of today. Heleen Eshuis has a very personal vision of food forests, and with her foundation Bosnodig, and the first food forest in Voorst, wants to reconnect children and people with the flavors and beautiful diversity of nature
Liesbeth van Bemmel
Episode 6, 13-6-2022
Liesbeth has a unique story to tell within the food forest world for two reasons. First of all, she has a legal background and is excellent at navigating the world of policy and regulation. And then she has managed to establish her food forest with certain ease in the middle of the flat green heart of the Netherlands. Food forest connoisseurs then know that she has pulled off something very special! Her mission is to guide more and more pioneers from a big green heart, so that they will make the path more passable for the next generation.
Sabine Philips
Episode 5, 30-5-2022
Sabine Philips connects. Centuries of estate history with modern food forests; spiritual yoga with practical farming; distant travels with simple living. And she so easily takes everyone on a journey with her. Friends from the city, neighbors from the village, other tenants of the estate, the complex family and now you, the listener, to a very attractive food forest concept. In the middle of the Dalf forest in Overijssel.
Wouter van Eck
Episode 4, 16-5-2022
Almost every speaker in this podcast names him as a great inspiration. But, by what and by whom was Wouter van Eck himself inspired? How did he get the idea to buy a field one day and plant food forest Ketelbroek on it? Of course, we also asked him about his vision for the future, but we pretty much dwelled on his great love: the insanely beautiful magic of the two most powerful processes on this planet: photosynthesis and the soil fungal web process and what those processes actually mean.
Martijn Aalbrecht
Episode 3, 2-5-2022
Martijn Aalbrecht has been looking for sustainable ways to live his life for more than 15 years and discovered the food forest while doing it. How did he get from new housing development, a good job at a bank and with a young family in tow to where he is today? A sought-after lecturer and consultant on food forests and plant propagation. And how does he see the future of food forests in the Netherlands?
Evelyn Derksen
Episode 2, 18-4-2022
Evelyn Derksen is a designer, teacher, landscape architect, late bloomer, plant nut, and through her active participation, from the very beginning, in Stichting Voedselbosbouw Nederland now designer of almost all the large food forests of the Netherlands. What is her story and her vision for the food forest landscape of the Netherlands?
Frank Gorter and Marieke Karssen
Episode 1, 7-4-2022
Before talking to other food forest pioneers, Marieke and Frank have a good talk. Why did they start this? And they don't just mean the podcast, but their enthusiasm for food forests as the answer to so many transition issues at once. When did they first hear about it? And what happened next? Or didn't? And how do they view the future of agriculture, food supply, social issues and, of course, food forests themselves.
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Who is (not) participating in this podcast?
We, Frank and Marieke, had been walking around with the vague idea 'we're going to make a podcast' for quite a long time. There were also some students who gave it a shot and after the webinar in November 2021 even more people said that we could do this. And then we did it.
We bought our own equipment, made our own investments in how to do it properly and all that without any kind of income. In our own time. The same goes for all the food forest pioneers who are guests in our episodes.
We are doing this because we are convinced that especially at this time of development of food forests and new forms of agriculture and forestry, it is important to ask some big questions. How did we get here, what is here and where are we going? And, are food forests indeed going to provide the answers that are so desperately hoped for? And, how can we get more people to think about those big questions? A podcast is a very suitable tool for this.
But, we are certainly grateful for any help. A sponsor who is compatible with the content of Food from the Forest, and this podcast, and wants to contribute to making it possible is very welcome. In that case, please feel free to contact us.
Want to learn more about food forests?
On Food from the Forest you will find a lot of free knowledge. About what food forests are... and aren't, about how to thematically fill them in and what the budget and plant list can be to go with that. Recently we made this even better with the food forest recipe tool. Here you can not only find and download six recipes for recognizable landscapes, but also budget with them yourself.
If you have a profile on this platform and have created your food forest there, you can also participate in the citizen science food forest monitoring system. This way, together we build up the evidence that food forests will indeed deliver on those beautiful promises of climate robustness, CO2 storage and a profitable harvest.
Want to learn more about food forests? Then take a look at our courses.