Join us as we explore how farmworkers can institute personal and crew practices to prevent or ease burnout on the farm. Register Now!

“Don’t make any big life decisions in August.” That is a phrase that people engaged in farming hear often because of the intense exhaustion and burnout they are feeling from grueling days full of extreme weather, a never-ending task list, weeds growing faster than crops, and balancing the rest of their life with the all-consuming farming season. Sometimes it’s hard to even think straight, let alone make any big decisions.

Burnout can make you question if you made the right career choice and can numb you to the joys that brought you to farming in the first place. It’s a hard place to be in, especially when the farm work doesn’t necessarily stop and you may not be in a position of power as a worker to make changes that could bring you ease on the job.

Let’s work through it together! In this Free School teach-in, we will create a collective definition of burnout, learn how it works through our bodies and our minds, and explore tips for burnout detection and management. Together, we’ll also discuss how we as workers can institute personal and crew practices to prevent or ease burnout.

Join us for a facilitated discussion with Laura Fredrickson-Gosewisch, a farmer, market manager and bodyworker who works to create spaces of wellness in farming.

We will also be joined by seasoned farmworkers Liz Wang and Kelly Skillingstead, who will share their own experiences with burnout on the farm.

There will be lots of space for you to share your own experiences and practices with burnout! Come as you are. Bring your tired, exhausted, burned out, and maybe grumpy and questioning selves, and join us in community as we think about farmer burnout, aka: how did we even get through August?

This session will be facilitated in English and simultaneously interpreted and translated into Spanish by Cooperativa Brujúlas. Closed captioned will also be available.

Co-hosted by Not Our Farm, UW-Madison Extension Dane County, and FairShare CSA Coalition.

Please note that Free School for Farmworkers sessions are a farmworker-only space.

*We define a farmworker as someone working on a farm they do not own, for or without pay, including interns, apprentices, and aspiring farmworkers. If you have questions about whether you are eligible to participate, please contact Anita Adalja at anita@notourfarm.org

Click Here to Register!