Relishing the challenge

Martin Davies - 02 May 2012

I feel very fortunate to be writing my first blog as Soil Association’s new head of farming. For those of you who don’t yet know me, I’m a farmer's son – originally from Shropshire – and I have been involved in the organic sector since 2000. I started out as a certification officer with OF&G, before spending six years’ in a producer support and market development role at Organic South West, based in Cornwall.

More recently, the past three years working have seen me working as an independent consultant and organic inspector in the Southwest. But if anyone had asked me what my dream job was when I first entered the organic sector, head of farming at the Soil Association really would have been it.

Luckily for me, I’ve just re-joined the Soil Association charity at a very exciting time indeed. Not only are we rolling out the Soil Association’s new strategy, The Road to 2020, but I am also delighted to announce that we have some secured funding from Duchy Originals through The Duchy Originals Future Farming programme. I’m particularly excited about this new strand of work, as it will enable us to engage far more with our farmer and grower members out in the field.

At its core, the programme will involve establishing a network of on-farm events to support innovation in sustainable agriculture, helping farmers and growers of all shapes and sizes to develop, trial and share ideas that will improve their environmental impact and enhance the nutritional quality of our food. Exciting stuff.

I’m hoping to use my blogs to provide you with regular updates on our work, but it will be much more fun and rewarding if you can get involved directly. This new work programme really is going to be dynamic and producer-focused, and will undoubtedly help to put ecological approaches to sustainable farming on the centre-stage.

Martin is Head of Farming at the Soil Association. He previously worked with Organic South West, working with farmers, processors and consumers to develop the organic sector. He then moved on to become an independent organic consultant and then returned to the Soil Association as an inspector before taking up his current role.

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