Company description

American Farmland Trust (AFT) is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the land that sustains us by protecting farmland, promoting sound farming practices, and keeping farmers on the land. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.5 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and helped thousands of farm families make a go of it (primarily through programs that increase farm viability and/or enhance farmland access). AFTs Farmland Information Center supports people working to save farmland for farming by providing an answer service and online collection of resources at Farmland Information Center's website(https://www.farmlandinfo.org/).

Job description

The Farmland Information and Policy Specialist will be responsible for conducting state and local policy research and expanding and maintaining an online collection of relevant laws, regulations and policies for AFTs Farmland Information Center website (www.farmlandinfo.org). The Policy Specialist also will contribute to AFTs state policy scorecarda component of AFTs Farms Under Threat initiative that ranks states efforts to protect agricultural land and support agricultural viability. The successful candidate will oversee surveys of state and local farmland protection activity and help respond to requests for information received through the FICs answer service. While the Policy Specialist may contribute to policy development the position does not involve direct advocacy. The Farmland Information and Policy Specialist will report to the Director of AFTs Farmland Information Center and work in AFTs office in Northampton, Massachusetts.

 

• Collecting, reviewing and analyzing federal, state and local laws, regulations, policies and plans;
• Tracking relevant state legislative activity;
• Overseeing the addition and maintenance of collections of laws, regulations and polices on the FIC website;
• Writing white papers, policy briefs, professional reports and blogs;
• Responding to technical requests from external audiences and AFT staff;
• Developing a range of educational resources including fact sheets and technical memos;
• Communicating with and helping to coordinate a network of farmland protection professionals; and
• Contributing to special projects on an as-needed basis.

Professional Requirements

• A BA or BS degree and minimum of three years of related work experience in agriculture, farmland protection, land conservation, land use planning or environmental policy. An advanced degree in one or more of the disciplines noted may substitute for work experience.
• Proven ability to perform legal and policy research and a thorough understanding of the legislative process demonstrated by at least two years experience working with lawmakers, lobbyists and/or state agency staff or a law degree.
• Verbal, written and multi-media communication skills.
• Familiarity with online meeting and training platforms, video conferencing, desktop sharing.
• Familiarity with website content management systems WordPress or Drupal
• Proficiency with Office Suite, including Excel and PowerPoint

Application Deadline: October 31, 2018

American Farmland Trust provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, American Farmland Trust complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the organization has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

PI104693648

 

Compensation

this position is: salaried, varies DOE, $40,000.00 - $45,000.00

Application instructions

Deadline

December 03, 2018