Animal Feed as Medicine

Overview of the webinar series: In this three-part series, Dr. Fred Provenza will discuss how palates link animals with foodscapes – those parts of landscapes animals use to nourish and self-medicate – through three interrelated processes: 1) availability of foods, 2) flavor-feedback relationships, and 3) transgenerational linkages to landscapes:

First, animals must have access to a variety of wholesome foods. The more they are restricted – for instance to a monoculture pasture or a feedlot ration for livestock or to ultra-processed foods for humans – the less they can sustain health.

Second, liking for the flavors of foods is mediated by feedback from cells and organ systems throughout the body, including the microbiome, in response to nutritional and medicinal needs. Those needs are met by nutrients (energy, protein, minerals, vitamins) and the thousands of compounds that diverse mixtures of plants produce (phenols, terpenes, alkaloids).

Third, mother is a transgenerational link to landscapes. Her knowledge – of what and what not to eat and where and where not to go to forage – is essential for helping her offspring get a start in life. Her influence begins in the womb (through flavors in her amniotic fluid), and continues at birth (through flavors in her milk) and when her offspring begin to forage (as a model for what and what not to eat).

Collectively, these processes enable the wisdom of the body to be manifest in animals that are locally adapted to the environments they inhabit.