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Crawford County UW-Extension to offer ‘Community Dialogue on CAFOs’
Size of CAFOs

CRAWFORD COUNTY - Crawford County is structuring its public input on CAFOs for their eventual decisions at the end of the CAFO Moratorium as a Community Dialogue

The intention of the Community Dialogue is for the CAFO Study Committee to bring together diverse community members, to hear about community members’ experiences and values, and to create a learning environment to illuminate the complexities of farming, water quality, health, and wellbeing in Crawford County. 

The Community Dialogue will be facilitated by our UW-Extension Crawford County Community Development Educator, Jessica Jane Spayde. 

“Any well-facilitated community dialogue is successful if community members leave feeling heard, feeling like they understand their neighbors better, and feeling like they learned something about themselves and their community,” Spayde said. “I’ve called upon my statewide network of Community Development colleagues within UW-Madison Division of Extension to be facilitators of our small group discussions. This way, each discussion will be expertly facilitated by qualified professionals, ensuring a civil, respectful dialogue.” 

Dialogue guidelines

Civil and respectful discourse. We can easily keep our discourse civil and respectful if we remember that our neighbors are in the room with us, and that we all love our community and want what's best for our community. 

Dialogue, not debate. We don’t want you to argue or try to win anyone to your side. Instead, we expect participants to spend most of their time listening and trying to understand one another. 

Honoring your experience. We want to hear your experiences, values, and practices, and we will honor your contribution by holding space for your voice. 

Ensuring these guidelines are kept. If anyone feels uncomfortable or unsafe, they can use the Zoom “Chat” function and chat directly with our facilitator, Jessica Jane Spayde, who will address the problem for them. Anyone who is attacking other people’s views, using a hostile manner, or threatening other participants will be asked to remove themselves from the meeting.

Meeting agenda

6 p.m. A brief introduction from our Facilitator about the CAFO Moratorium and the CAFO Study Committee. 

6:10 p.m. A brief overview of the dialogue process. 

6:15 p.m. Facilitated small group discussions, using the Zoom Breakout Rooms function, with these guiding questions: 

A. What do you feel about health, safety, and welfare issues around CAFOs in general? 

B. What other areas do you want the CAFO Study Committee to look into? 

6: 55 p.m. Back to the Large Group: Facilitators report back: 

A. What questions came up?

B. What concerns came up? 

C. What directions forward were suggested? 

7:20. Next Steps & Closing

Registration is required

All members of the Crawford County community are welcome. People from outside Crawford County are welcome to attend and listen, but we hope you understand that our primary goal is to hear from our community members during this Community Dialogue.


To register, go to: https://uwextension.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrc-yqrDIqE9DXSyGP7ZejHFltDXHv3NXd.


For more information, call Extension Crawford County with any questions: 608-326-0223 or Spayde@wisc.edu.