Our Great Resignation | Emily Erickson

Emily Erickson grew up on a small, diversified livestock and crop farm near Dundee, MN. Her parents bought their farm in the early '80's, right as the farm crisis hit. Her dad raised pigs outdoors, a farrow to finish operation of about 100 sows at the time, and also farmed corn, soybeans and usually oats, for bedding. Emily graduated from South Dakota State University with a B.S. in Animal Science. She was fortunate to fall into an animal welfare role for a production system right at the start of the industry reacting to activists and welfare videos. Emily spent 13 years internally auditing and monitoring the welfare of a 53,000 sow system. She has sat on the committees for National Pork Board and Minnesota Pork and is currently still engaged on the Common Swine Industry Audit Task Force, which she has been a part of since the CSIA's inception. Emily is currently the Head of Human Resources for Wakefield Pork and lives in Jackson, MN with her two kiddos, August and Hazel, who keep her on her toes! They enjoy spending time outdoors, going to her parent's home farm to ride/drive Grampa's Kubota and spending time with family.