🍃 What we spray on the soil eventually lands on our plates.

Did you know?

What we spray on the soil eventually ends up inside us. 

Think about that salad on your plate. The bread in your cupboard or that shiny apple in your fruit bowl. 

We’re told some fertilisers are essential, but here’s what happens when it’s sprayed onto the soil. It clings to the roots, gets absorbed by crops, and travels all the way through the supply chain… until it’s sitting on your dinner plate.

We’ve created a system that feeds us while slowly eroding the very ground it depends on, and we call it progress.

I came across a visual shared by Louis De Jaeger recently that showed this clearly. 

And no, this isn’t just about agriculture. Design plays a crucial part too. We’ve normalised efficiency over resilience and speed over sustainability.

And unless we rethink that approach, we’ll keep building systems that deliver short term gains at long term cost to our health, our soil, and our future.

Photo credit: Louis De Jaeger (LinkedIn).

The big idea:

For decades, the dominant mindset has been simple: Take what you need. Dump what you don’t. Call it growth.

In agriculture, that’s synthetic fertilisers and pesticides used to maximise short term yield while draining the life from our soils.

In business, it’s single use packaging, disposable products, and ignored waste streams all designed to optimise speed, not sustainability.

But what if we changed that?

What if we built systems to restore, not extract?

That’s the heart of regenerative thinking.

And it doesn’t just belong on farms. It belongs in boardrooms, factories, and product roadmaps.

Here’s what it looks like in action:

- Agriculture that rebuilds soil carbon and biodiversity.

- Manufacturing that uses byproducts as raw materials.

- Supply chains that return value to the ecosystem rather than strip it away.

The businesses that are adopting this mindset early are the ones setting themselves up for long term advantage with loyal customers, smarter systems, and less risk.

Tip of the week:

Want to apply regenerative thinking to your business?

Start here:

1. Trace it back.
Follow your materials to their origin. What’s their environmental and human footprint?

2. Go beyond compliance.
Don’t wait for policy. Set your own regenerative standards and hold your suppliers to them.

3. Design for repair and reuse.
Durability is a design choice. So is waste.

4. Think in loops, not lines.
Look for ways to cycle resources back into your process or someone else’s.

5. Talk to your farmers, manufacturers, and engineers.
There’s often more potential to restore than you realise. It’s just hidden in your own supply chain.

Regeneration isn’t just for the soil. This is a mindset shift that every future ready business needs.

Remember, what we put into the world eventually finds its way back to us.

Interested in continuing this conversation? Send me a DM on LinkedIn or reply to this email.

Make sustainability a real business advantage

If you’re a business leader looking to increase competitiveness, cut costs, or finally get sustainability working with your business goals and not against them, then let’s talk.

I’m opening a few slots to speak with leaders who are serious about creating an impact and seeing the results over the next 6 to 18 months.

Just hit reply and tell me, in one sentence:

What’s the one outcome you’d love to achieve?

I’ll read every reply, and if I can help, I’ll get back to you personally.

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Every step we take together makes a bigger impact tomorrow!

Best,
Jasper