Our work 2012

Last year the Soil Association began a conversation with our staff and supporters which resulted in our ‘Road to 2020’, a refreshed strategy to deliver solutions which secure healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use, for the benefit of everyone. Since then we have started the journey of turning words into action; setting clear goals for each strand of our work; restructuring ourselves against the major work themes of ‘Facing the Future’, ‘Good Food for All’, ‘Enabling Change’, and ‘Building our Organisation’; and engaging more closely with those we aim to support.

Facing the future

We want to provide solutions that help people to live, eat, farm and grow with the resources that are available, pioneering new solutions to tackle climate change, support biodiversity, improve animal welfare and champion fairness. In the last year: 

• We launched the Duchy Originals Future Farming Programme to provide on-farm learning events which will reach more than 1,000 farmers a year
• We have safeguarded the welfare of over 11 million laying hens which are now benefiting from our outcomes based welfare measures
• We developed carbon and nitrogen assessment tools to help farmers reduce their environmental impact
• We set out the evidence that organic farming can play a central part in feeding a more populous world fairly and sustainably
• We joined the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics campaign to amplify the impact of our work to reduce routine antibiotic use in farm animals.

Good food for all

Good food can transform people’s lives. We believe that good food is a right, not a privilege. We want to promote solutions which make sure everyone can access food that is healthy for them, and the planet. As a result of our work in the last year:

• Twice as many primary schools received an Ofsted rating of ‘outstanding’ following their participation in the Food for Life Partnership programme
• One fifth of all schools in England are now part of the Food for Life Partnership programme
• Plymouth and Bristol created food charters, bringing the total to six cities in our Sustainable Food Cities network making healthy and sustainable food a top priority in their efforts to help local communities.

Enabling change

Unlike many organisations who advocate for change we have the extraordinary advantage of working with the people who make it happen on the ground. We want to help our pioneers progress as well as to improve the sustainability of all farming and food systems. As a result of our work in the last year:

• The schools, hospitals, nurseries and universities we are working with are now serving approximately 100 million Food for Life Catering Mark standard meals each year
• We are providing support to over 4,000 farmers, growers and businesses and promoting the organic market through our annual events Organic September and the Organic Food Awards

Building our organisation

To achieve the ambitions in this strategy we need a solid foundation of excellent and motivated staff, a secure business model, sufficient reserves to allow for the unexpected, and the strong support of members, donors and other funders. We are committed to improving the way we work as an organisation.

Looking forward 

The environment for all charities, and the wider economy, is likely to continue to be tough during the coming year.  With this in mind, we have focused our resources to achieve the fullest impact we can in 2013:

• We are working to secure the future of the Food for Life Partnership by developing a viable economic model, and reach at least half the schools in England by 2020
• We will reach 3,000 farmers over the first three years of the Duchy Originals Future Farming Programme
• We will continue to work towards ensuring that farm practice delivers a good life for farm animals through the work of the AssureWel project, and by seeking to influence policy in this area
• We will promote the benefits of organic production to encourage growth in the organic market, help our symbol holders progress and improve the sustainability of all farming systems
• We will grow the network of sustainable food communities and cities throughout the UK
• We are working to adapt the Food for Life model that was so successful in schools to achieve similarly profound changes to the food culture in our hospitals, workplaces and nurseries.

To find out more about our work in 2012, please download our full annual review below.

• Our work 2012 [PDF, 1 MB]
• Accounts 2012 [PDF, 791 KB]

• Our work 2011 [PDF, 2.7 MB]
• Accounts 2011 [PDF, 2 MB]