Organic Farmer

Salary
Average wage: £12,000

Main Employers

• Privately owned farms
• Co-operatives
• Food manufacturers

Job Profile
Organic farmers produce good food from a balanced living soil. Strict regulations define what they can and can't do, placing a strong emphasis on protecting the environment. Organic farmers use crop rotations to make the soil more fertile instead of artificial chemical fertilisers. They can't grow genetically modified crops and can only use - as a last resort - seven of the hundreds of pesticides available to farmers. As with most farmers, organic farmers fulfil many roles, from harvester to business manager. It is not enough to simply tend land; independent organic farmers market and sell their products too.

Role and Responsibilities
Jobs will vary according to each employer; however you could expect to be involved in:

• Selecting, planting, harvesting and selling crops
• Renewable energy initiatives
• Creating wildlife habitats on-site
• Working with families, local community groups and business partners

Qualifications
Relevant further education subjects include: Agricultural Engineering; Agriculture; Botany; Crop & Plant Science; Economics; Environmental Science; Horticulture; Soil Science

Career Development
Organic farming is helping to reverse the decline in the UK's agricultural workforce, which has fallen by 80% in the last 50 years. Organic farming is a growing industry; in 1997, there were 800 organic farmers in the UK and today there are more than 4,000. However, the National Farmers' Union believes a third of those are losing money.

Organic farms in the UK provide more jobs per farm than non-organic agriculture because they require more skilled people to manage the crops, soil and animals. Organic farms also tend to be more diverse, which means that they require a correspondingly larger workforce to fulfil a wider range of jobs.

In contrast to the ageing overall farming population, organic farmers tend to be younger than their non-organic counterparts. Organic farming is also attracting more new entrants to agriculture. A recent Defra-funded survey of farms in England found that 31% of organic farmers had entered agriculture as an entirely new career and did not come from a farming family, compared to 21% of the non-organic sample.

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