Kate Kavanaugh: Nutritionist, Butcher, Farmer, and Expert in Food Systems

Kate Kavanaugh is a certified Master Nutrition Therapist, butcher, farmer, and writer with fifteen years of experience working at the intersection of human health, agriculture, and ecology.  Kate brings a rigorous, systems-based approach to her work that considers not just individual health, but the entanglement of the health of soil, animals, communities, and whole ecosystems. Her work at Force of Nature focuses on nutrient density, bioavailability, and the deep connections between what we eat, the soil it comes from, and the historical and current contexts that shape it.

Kate began her journey studying biology and anthropology with a focus on sustainability and human health and evolution in college. In 2013, she co-founded Western Daughters Butcher Shop in Denver, Colorado, where she and her husband, Josh Curtiss, partnered with regenerative farms to source grass-fed and grass-finished beef and lamb, and pasture-raised pork and chicken.

Kate has also taught butchery and hosted farm-based workshops across the country, reconnecting people to the land and their food systems through hands-on experience. She now runs a small experimental farm in upstate New York, raising goats, cattle, chickens, ducks, and geese. There, she explores how different feed impacts animal health and land stewardship practices that support the health of land and humans alike.

In 2022, she launched the Mind, Body, and Soil podcast, where she has hosted over 120 conversations with NYT bestselling authors, scientists, and leaders on topics from nutrition, agriculture, ecology, economics, and human history. Her work in systems thinking was deepened as a fellow for the Mercatus Center’s John Stuart Mill Fellowship and the Capital Institute’s Regenerative Economics Fellowship. 

Kate is devoted to building place-based knowledge and regenerative frameworks that challenge extractive systems—and offers, instead, a grounded vision of participation, interdependence, and repair.