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Join the Soil Association as a Horticulture Expert to Help Shape the Future of Organic Standards
Overview
Salary
£0
Location
100% remote
Nomad Friendly?
Expires
Expires at anytime
The Soil Association is at the forefront of advocating for sustainable agriculture and ethical consumerism, promoting organic food, textiles, and health and beauty products. As a champion for environmental stewardship, the organization is dedicated to making impactful changes to farming, land use, and production practices, ensuring a healthier planet and populace.
- Advise on the development and impact assessment of organic horticulture standards.
- Represent the horticulture sector on the Soil Association's independent Standards Board.
- Participate in steering groups and oversee specialist working groups as required.
- Extensive expertise in organic horticulture and related industries.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with strong industry connections.
- Alignment with the Soil Association’s mission in food, organic products, farming, and forestry.
Horticulture representative for Standards Board
Non-executive (voluntary role)
Represent your sector and be at the forefront of Soil Association standards development
About us
The Soil Association believes that good, healthy produce and products should be the easy choice for everyone. Food, textiles and health and beauty products should be produced in a way that protects our natural world.
We’re dedicated to making positive changes to farming and land use, food, fibre and cosmetics production and our standards are an important tool to achieve this. Our organic standards were some of the first in the world and with the help of our Standards Board and expert advisors they remain pioneering yet pragmatic requirements.
A thriving organic horticulture sector is central to the mission of the Soil Association. Our work is focussed on making organic more available and accessible to horticulture producers to ensure that we can meet the growing demand for organic fresh produce. We work to build connections from producer to consumer with broader projects such as Sustainable Food Places, and make good food more accessible in public sector catering through the Food for life programme.
About the Opportunity
This is an opportunity to play an important role in the Soil Association’s multi-stakeholder standards-setting process, as the horticulture sector representative on our Standards Board.
The Standards Board is an independent committee, overseeing strategy and development of standards for Soil Association, UK & EU organic farming & food, COSMOS beauty & cosmetics, GOTS textiles and other Soil Association developed schemes.
We are looking for a horticulture expert to represent this diverse and complex sector. Your experience and practical knowledge of horticulture and related industries will help the Soil Association remain a leading influencer and organic standards setter.
You will advise on mandates outlining objectives for horticulture, developed by staff-led steering groups. You will advise on standards development and assessing the impact of our standards, and oversee specialist task and finish groups as needed.
About You
The essential qualities we need are that:
- You are a Soil Association licensee and/or have practical experience and technical knowledge of issues around organic horticulture;
- You are a clear thinker;
- You communicate well and have good interpersonal skills;
- You are plugged into leading industry networks such as the Organic Grower’s Alliance, or Fruit and Vegetable Alliance;
- You have empathy with the Soil Association’s objectives for food, organic products, farming and forestry.
Time commitment
- Able to attend up to three face-to-face or virtual meetings per year.
- Preparatory reading in advance of meetings.
- Other involvement as appropriate.
- Reasonable expenses will be covered (according to our expenses policy).
It would also be desirable for you to have some experience of committee work, and/or of monitoring and evaluating the impact of projects and schemes within your sector
Important dates
Closing date for applications is 9am, Thursday 1st August 2024. Online interviews will take place later in August 2024.
When submitting your CV and cover letter to confirm your interest in the position please ensure you clearly outline how you meet each of the essential qualities as laid out in the role specification.
