About the Job:
The Organic Council of Ontario is looking for an enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Policy and Education Coordinator who is passionate about agriculture and the environment. OCO has a small staff team with a broad scope: we punch above our weight! We seek candidates with a balance of left and right brain thinking, with the ability to hold the big picture without losing sight of important details, and the problem solving chops to excel at new tasks. Ideal candidates have a curious mind and know how to ask the right questions to gain clarity or build consensus on tricky regulatory issues with diverse players. They will be able to grasp organic regulatory and standards issues quickly and communicate them in engaging and accessible language.

Tasks of the Policy and Education Coordinator may include the following categories:
1. Provincial Policy and Regulation
Continue to build the case for a provincial organic regulation in Ontario through stakeholder engagement, research, economic case studies, and jurisdictional scans
Create an implementation roadmap and cost breakdown for provincial regulation;
Continue to create policy briefs, pre-budget submissions and jurisdictional scans that build the rationale for sector priorities (e.g. transition supports)
2. Special Projects Policy Research
Assist the Organic Value Chain Roundtable in deciphering next steps for creating a national organic inputs database;
3. Organic Standards and Certification Knowledge Base
Assist in answering organic inquiries related to the organic standards and regulations
Assist in growing our repository of subject-specific Organic Standards blogs and resources
Assist in developing a knowledge base information management system
4. Food Education and Regenerative Organic Blog Series
Create engaging, informative, and succinct blog posts that shed light on the benefits of organic products and how they differ from other labels (see our “More than Just” series)
Create engaging graphics, images and materials to be distributed to retailers and other stakeholders to help educate their eaters on organic issues
Conduct research into various carbon measurement and regenerative agriculture incentive programs and write public-facing blogs posts.
5. Data and Information Management System
Assist the Communications and Membership Manager in analyzing production, pricing and marketing data
Assist the Communications and Membership Manager in designing a new member-only dynamic data page for members
6. Assist in Preparing Grant Applications
Where appropriate, this position may assist the Executive Director in preparing grant applications for OCO

The Ideal Candidate
Highly motivated, can work independently and in a team;
Customer service oriented;
Knows how to juggle and prioritize multiple priorities;
Curious and engaged systems thinker;
Familiarity working with standards and/or the ability to interpret regulatory and policy language;
Experience creating and managing multi-stakeholder research and/or consulting projects under limited timelines;
Experience with non-academic report writing and/or journalism;
Experience managing information and/or data systems including data analysis;
Takes initiative to constantly improve their work and the work of the organization;
Passionate and knowledgeable about food and agriculture; knowledge of organics an asset;
Experience using or is comfortable learning to use various online communications management tools (e.g. Survey Monkey, WordPress, Statamic, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Canva, Google Suite)
Experience with contact management and/or online information management tools;

Strong research and writing skills;
Experience with graphic design an asset (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Canva etc.);
Some understanding of the Ontario political climate and public sector;
French language skills an asset.

To apply, send a CV and cover letter in one pdf document to hiring@organiccouncil.ca by July 19th at 5pm with Policy and Education Coordinator in the subject line.