Humane Food Agriculture Consultant

RSPCA Australia

Reports to                         Manager Humane Food

Location                             RSPCA Australia office, 6 Napier Close Deakin                                                ACT

Position type                    Full time (12 month contract)

Salary                                  $55,000 – $70,000 pa (including 9.5%                                                                   superannuation)

Purpose  

• Encouraging and supporting the farming sector and end users to move from cage to cage-free eggs and provide advice on more humane farming systems

Responsibilities

• Be the first point of contact for all farm animal welfare inquiries from farmers, the food industry and relevant supply chains.
• Build and maintain productive relationships with farmers and their supply chains, liaising with them on techniques and solutions to address animal welfare issues in their production practices.
• Encourage and support the farming sector to move from cage to cage-free egg production and provide advice on more humane production systems.
• Encourage the uptake of higher welfare animal-proteins by large-volume users such as retail, food service and manufacturing industries.
• Build and maintain productive relationships with food distributors, brands, manufacturers and retailers to facilitate RSPCA-Approved food products being available in mainstream and specialist retailers and food service.
• Build and maintain productive relationships along the egg, pork and meat chicken farming sectors, relevant supply chains and others in the food industry to facilitate availability of higher welfare options to restaurants and other food related businesses.
• As requested, provide input to farm animal welfare and humane food strategies, taking into account objectives, target markets, market intelligence, commercial livestock farming practices, relevant research, budget availability, the latest thinking on communication and marketing techniques as well as information obtained through analytics.

Other duties as required.

Selection criteria

Essential

• An interest in farm animal welfare
• Tertiary qualifications in agricultural science, or a relevant discipline, or appropriate experience
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Excellent organisational skills, attention to detail
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• The ability to plan and prioritise a varied workload and meet fixed deadlines
• The ability to use Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel and Outlook) effectively as communication and work management tools
• The ability to respect and maintain confidentiality in regards to the performance and practices of producers
• The ability to comply with biosecurity requirements for visiting farms
• The ability to travel intra and interstate by air or car as required

Desirable

• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining organisational and individual relationships within the agricultural sector
• Knowledge of farm animal production systems, particularly intensive systems
• Knowledge of farming and food supply chains
• Experience with farm-based assurance and/or labelling systems
• Current driver’s license
• The ability to be away from home for up to five consecutive nights

Work Health and Safety

Workers and Volunteers are responsible for:

1. taking care to protect their own health and safety; and
2. avoiding any act or omission that could adversely affect the health and safety of any other person; and
3. complying with relevant WHS policies and procedures; and
4. attending training and induction; and
5. complying with any reasonable instruction aimed at protecting health and safety in the workplace; and
6. using any equipment provided to protect health and safety; and
7. assisting in the identification of hazards, assessments of risks and implementation of risk control measures; and
8. keeping work areas in a safe condition; and
9. reporting any incident or hazard to their line manager; and
10. providing feedback on any matters which may affect WHS at RSPCA Australia.

EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS

The contract period is for 12 months. Leave provisions are 20 days recreational and 10 days sick/carers leave per year. Normal office hours are from 9am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday.