Our policy work
The Soil Association’s policy team is a leading voice in the sustainable food movement, advocating for a visionary future for UK farming.
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The Soil Association is a UK non-government organisation, formed in 1946 to pioneer a world where we can live in harmony with nature.
We engage with Government and key stakeholders to promote progressive policies to ensure the highest environmental and animal welfare standards, and we work tirelessly to make healthy and sustainable practices a top priority post-Brexit.
Get involved
We campaign for change across food, farming and the natural world, asking government to act on the issues that affect us all. From cutting harmful chemicals out of our food to cleaning up polluted rivers and supporting the growers behind our fruit and vegetables, our campaigns give people a way to make their voices heard.
Cut the chemicals from our food and fields
Glyphosate sprayed on crops just before harvest leaves residues in our food and harms nature. Sign our petition calling on the UK government to ban this practice, as the EU already has.
Our priorities
Meet the policy team
Brendan Costelloe
Policy and Strategy Director
Brendan leads the Soil Association’s Policy Unit. He has broad experience in environmental policy across government, NGOs and business. He previously advised the Defra Secretary of State and worked at the RSPB and the British Ecological Society. He later helped businesses on nature‑related reporting at Biodiversify. Brendan is also a trustee of a Malawian education charity and serves on the Cotswold National Landscape Conservation Board.
Gareth Morgan
Head of Farming Policy
Lucia Monje-Jelfs
Senior Policy Officer, Farming and Land Use
Hannah Blitzer
Senior Policy Officer, Farming and Land Use
Rob Percival
Head of Food Policy
Oona Buttafoco
Senior Policy Officer, Food and Health
Andrew Tuddenham
Head of Policy Cymru
Andrew is Head of Policy, Wales. He leads Soil Association advocacy on food, farming and land use policy in Wales. Since joining in 2022, Andrew has worked on the Welsh Government's Sustainable Farming Scheme as a member of the SFS Ministerial Roundtable, building on earlier work shaping post‑Brexit agricultural policy. He engages with Welsh Government and the Senedd to champion healthy, sustainable food, and is mobilising support for a Welsh Organic Action Plan.
David McKay
Co-Director and Head of Policy
David is Co‑Director and Head of Policy for Soil Association Scotland. He leads the research, development and advocacy of the charity’s policy positions on food, farming and land use. He sits on the Scottish Organic Stakeholders Group, the Scottish Agroecology Partnership, Scottish Environment LINK’s Food and Farming Group and the Forest Policy Group. David holds an MSc in organic farming from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and grows Soil Association‑certified organic fruit and vegetables.
Cathy Cliff
Policy Advisor, Campaigns
