EP 214 — Fred Provenza: Food, Farming and Our Future

There’s little doubt that we’re living in an epistemological crisis, particularly when it comes to how we get food and water — mostly polluted and nutrient poor — from the source to our kitchen tables.

How do we begin to clean up the mess and eat better and healthier foods?

Fred Provenza, professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University, describes nutritional wisdom and what that means for the future of the planet in this granular Living 4D conversation.

Learn more about Fred’s work at Understanding AG and Farming Secrets.

Show Notes

• Wildlife biologists considered ranching and farming degraders of landscapes. (6:36)
• Have we lost our self-reliance? (9:32)
• Nutritional wisdom. (18:35)
• Animals can learn to eat or avoid foods based on post-ingested feedback. (29:06)
• How some animals innovate to survive. (40:32)
• “Eating (anything) is participating in a very sacred act.” (52:07)
• Have people lost a sense of becoming something more or better than themselves? (57:02)
• Animals discern the range and taste of nutritious foods they eat before leaving the womb. (1:09:29)
• The importance of the gut microbiome. (1:15:06)
• Adding the element of choice alters what animals eat and how much. (1:32:37)
• How Big Food hijacks the system and our health. (1:37:36)
• Where do you get your tomatoes? (1:41:35)
• “When the data don’t fit your hypothesis, you have to follow the data.” (2:02:52)
• Secondary compounds plants use to protect themselves from herbivores and other plants. (2:21:21)
• The value of plant diversity for our health and environment. (2:30:12)
• Plants and animals are one step ahead of the curve of Big Ag’s chemical arms race that humans will never win. (2:40:00) 

Resources

• Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom and The Art and Science of Shepherding: Tapping the Wisdom of French Herders by Fred Provenza
• Foraging Behavior: Managing to Survive in a World of Change by Fred Provenza (free PDF link)
• Woodrat houses

More resources for this episode are available on our website.

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