This in-depth, multi-authored work originally published in France takes readers deep into traditional world of shepherds. Far from a nostalgic glimpse into a romanticized lifestyle, this book teaches how this sophisticated art and set of tangible skills has application in modern, North American range/livestock management. Through academic study and analysis and in-depth interviews with master shepherds readers will be amazed by the deep connection between the nutritional need for animals to feed, the powers of observation used by the shepherds to effectively care for and manage large herds, and how the traditional moving of the animals is more fitting to many landscapes than even the most progressive rotational grazing and moveable fencing systems. The compilation carries enough weight to dazzle the most ardent student and enough real-world know-how to equip the 21st-century herdsman with new insights and philosophies.

‘I never knew how fascinating a book about herding and grazing could be… This book is remarkable.’ Joanna Lumley ‘Ilse’s deep understanding of herding cultures, and their relationship with the land and life itself, is both moving and revelatory… I loved this book.’ Isabella Tree, author of Wilding ‘Ilse Köhler-Rollefson emerges as a voice worth listening to in this fascinating book about traditional herding culture.’ Country Life Hoofprints on the Land is a fascinating, original and lyrical description of the working partnerships between people and animals that are based on profound respect and relationships that, with the land itself, are founded not on exploitation but reciprocity. Ilse draws on her experience of living with the Raika camel herding community in India for the past 30 years to  show how herding cultures tend their flocks in harmony with the land and in partnership with their animals. Nomadic livestock herding is the most ancient and natural means of keeping livestock, yet through colonisation and modernisation, these pioneers have been pushed to the edges of society and their methods have been dismissed as old fashioned and out of touch.  Hoofprints on the Land debunks the myth that animal-free agriculture is the only way forward for a healthy planet, and reflects on how we can work with animals to regenerate the landscape. As Ilse writes: ‘Herding is therapy, not just for the planet, but also for our souls.’

"Nourishment will change the way you eat and the way you think."-Mark Schatzker, author of The Dorito Effect "[Provenza is] a wise observer of the land and the animals [and] becomes transformed to learn the meaning of life."-Temple Grandin Reflections on feeding body and spirit in a world of change Animal scientists have long considered domestic livestock to be too dumb to know how to eat right, but the lifetime research of animal behaviorist Fred Provenza and his colleagues has debunked this myth. Their work shows that when given a choice of natural foods, livestock have an astoundingly refined palate, nibbling through the day on as many as fifty kinds of grasses, forbs, and shrubs to meet their nutritional needs with remarkable precision. In Nourishment Provenza presents his thesis of the wisdom body, a wisdom that links flavor-feedback relationships at a cellular level with biochemically rich foods to meet the body's nutritional and medicinal needs. Provenza explores the fascinating complexity of these relationships as he raises and answers thought-provoking questions about what we can learn from animals about nutritional wisdom. What kinds of memories form the basis for how herbivores, and humans, recognize foods? Can a body develop nutritional and medicinal memories in utero and early in life? Do humans still possess the wisdom to select nourishing diets or has that ability been hijacked by nutritional "authorities"? Is taking supplements and enriching and fortifying foods helping us, or is it hurting us? On a broader scale Provenza explores the relationships among facets of complex, poorly understood, ever-changing ecological, social, and economic systems in light of an unpredictable future. To what degree do we lose contact with life-sustaining energies when the foods we eat come from anywhere but where we live? To what degree do we lose the mythological relationship that links us physically and spiritually with Mother Earth who nurtures our lives? Provenza's paradigm-changing exploration of these questions has implications that could vastly improve our health through a simple change in the way we view our relationships with the plants and animals we eat. "Nourishment is a conversation between science, culture, and a greater spiritual or cosmological umbrella."-Montana Public Radio