Nourishment: How Animals, People & Landscapes Learn — with Dr Fred Provenza

 

Nourishment: How Animals, People & Landscapes Learn — with Dr Fred Provenza

In this powerful conversation, Dr Fred Provenza — author of Nourishment — explores how animals and humans learn from experience, how environments shape behaviour through epigenetics, and why real change in agriculture begins “between the ears.” From in-utero learning to regenerative decision-making, this episode challenges us to rethink how we manage land, livestock, and ourselves.

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🌱 What This Episode Covers

In this wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful discussion, Fred Provenza joins the KLR team to explore how biology, behaviour, belief systems, and learning are inseparable — in animals and in people.

You’ll hear about:

• How animals develop the ability to digest and utilise poor-quality feed through experience and early-life exposure

• The role of epigenetics — how genes are expressed in response to social and environmental conditions

• Research showing animals exposed to certain plants in utero later choose those plants and adapt physiologically to them

• Why animals — and people — resist change, even when current systems are no longer serving them

• What morning sickness may tell us about evolutionary protection of the developing fetus

• Why transformation usually comes through trial, discomfort, and disruption

• How regenerative change must start with mindset, not just management practices

• The influence of Bud Williams and the power of learning to truly think for yourself

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🧠 Key Takeaways for Livestock Producers

• Animals are not passive — they learn what to eat, where to go, and how to survive through experience.

• Early nutrition and exposure shape lifetime performance, preference, and resilience.

• Behaviour and biology are shaped by environment — management matters more than genetics alone.

• Change is hard because beliefs are hard to shift — both in livestock and in people.

• Regeneration isn’t just about what you do with the land… it’s about how you see the land.

As one Mexican regenerative farmer famously put it:

“If you want to change the land, the change has to happen between your ears first.”

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📖 About the Guest — Dr Fred Provenza

Dr Fred Provenza is Professor Emeritus at Utah State University and author of the book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom.
His work has transformed how scientists, producers, and land managers understand:

• Animal behaviour and diet selection

• Learning in livestock

• Plant–animal relationships

• Ecological and human health connections

Fred’s research and philosophy have influenced regenerative agriculture thinkers and stockpeople around the world, including close collaboration and friendship with the late Bud Williams.

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💬 Memorable Quotes from the Episode

• “Genes are incredibly stable — what changes is how they are expressed in response to environment.”

• “Animals become intimately linked to the landscapes they are required to survive in.”

• “It’s hard to change core beliefs — in animals and in people.”

• “The trials are what transform consciousness.”

• “I don’t want you to think like I think… I just want you to think.” — Bud Williams

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🔁 Why This Matters for KLR Producers

This conversation reinforces a core KLR principle:

Management decisions — not markets or genetics — drive outcomes.

Understanding how animals learn, adapt, and respond to environments strengthens our ability to:

• Match livestock to landscapes

• Build resilient grazing systems

• Improve animal welfare and performance

• Make more intentional, less reactive decisions

It also reminds us that profitable, regenerative systems start with how we think, not just what we do.