Tilth Conference

Conference Schedule

Conference Schedule

From Distress to Resilience: Finding Purpose and Connection Through the Polycrisis and Climate Change

  • Date: Tuesday, November 17
  • Time: 4:00-5:15 p.m.
  • Speakers: Teal Potter, Washington State University; Maud Powell, Oregon State University
  • Track: Track 2

Many of us are suffering from emotional consequences associated with political, social and environmental changes, and are understandably reacting with despair, grief, or uncertainty. Farmers, ranchers, and food producers have uniquely intimate relationships to places and landscapes, and as a result, are especially vulnerable to climate-related losses and grief. This session will offer a context to explore collective grief and anxiety. Participants will be encouraged to understand their emotions and then strategize how to make their farms more resilient in the face of greater uncertainty and risk.

About the Speakers

  • Teal Potter

    Washington State University

    Teal Potter is an agriculture resilience specialist at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources. Teal’s primary areas of work include coordinating state-wide research on cover crops and trainings to facilitate climate adaptation in specialty crops nation-wide. Teal is committed to the long view of agriculture, seeking to build out scenarios to help agricultural stakeholders around the West envision a future where we can grow crops under even more challenging conditions later this century. Her past research examines how agricultural practices influence soil microbial communities and the consequences for agricultural crops and soil health. Teal received her PhD in Ecology from the University of Colorado and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin and Washington State University. She is based at the Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee.

  • Maud Powell

    Oregon State University

    Maud Powell and her family own and operate Wolf Gulch Farm, a certified organic vegetable and seed farm in the Applegate Valley of Southern Oregon. Since 2005, she’s also worked as a faculty member with Oregon State University Extension’s Small Farms Program, where she focuses on farmer education, climate resilience, and sustainable production systems. She also serves as the Western SARE Coordinator for Oregon, supporting research and professional development in sustainable agriculture.