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3. 2023 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Professional Support Networks - Surviving and Thriving in a Time of Crisis

Beth Vercolio-Osmund

Summary

In 2020 farmers, like everyone in our society, had their lives and often livelihoods thrown into chaos by a public health crisis. So much of what we all took for granted was suddenly upended. In this presentation, Beth will recap how Cedar Valley Sustainable was able to adapt and thrive throughout the upheaval by working with existing and new support networks for the benefit of all parties involved.

Resilience has many facets and wellness, mental health, and profitability are bedrocks for a farmer/small business owner. In this presentation, Beth will share how she and her partner built upon existing relationships and worked together with a variety of colleagues and communities and why that was instrumental to their success.

We all hope that nothing like the novel coronavirus will happen again. But now more than ever, we know that we can be taken by surprise by catastrophes on a large or small scale. Doing everything we can to build resilience into our professional and social networks is critical.

Communities, businesses, and individuals benefit from interdependence and in this session agriculture educators will see examples and gain insight into helping the farmers you support to develop those relationships and networks.

Presenter Bio: Beth Vercolio-Osmund is co-owner/farmer at Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm, an animal agriculture farm and the first meat CSA in Illinois. She and her husband Jody started Cedar Valley Sustainable on family land in Ottawa, IL, in 2002. They are a second-career family that left the Chicago consulting world following the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s. They are activist farmers who speak out about policy issues and are involved in advocacy work.

Details

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