Apply to join

Joining is easy, proceed to the Join LEAF farmer membership page, you can register your application and proceed to the checkout and pay online or apply for membership online and pay by either of the following methods:

• Cheque
• Standing order
• BACS Payment

Structure of LEAF Charity membership and LEAF Marque certification. 

LEAF Charity Memberships and LEAF Marque certificates are set on an annual basis. 

A LEAF charity membership and LEAF Marque certificate will cover all enterprises / crops that are grown by the legal entity[1]  and include a defined area[2] of land or parcels of land (this includes rented land) managed by the legal entity.

The Charity membership and legal entity is described as the “Company”.  

Individual Farm Membership 

Where, and in most cases, the “Company” farms an area of land in one block or locality, the LEAF Charity membership and LEAF Marque certificate is straight forward. The LEAF Charity membership fee is based on the area of land and the LEAF Marque certificate is issued for all the enterprises and crops on this land.

“Companies” with multiple production facilities and/or enterprises  

This is where “Companies” are managed as an integrated business and resources (i.e. land, management expertise, labour, inputs and outputs) are exchanged on a daily basis. These production facilities must be included in the scope of a single LEAF charity membership and LEAF Marque certificate. 

“Companies” with multiple production facilities (farms and land parcels) that are managed separately 

This is where resources (i.e. land, management expertise, labour, inputs and outputs) are not exchanged between production facilities on a daily basis.  Each production facility or farm must have a separate LEAF charity membership and LEAF Marque certificate. The “Company” Name used to describe the production must include the “Company” Name and a unique identification i.e. farm name or location. (This does not include Producer organisations that are LEAF Producer Groups and GlobalGap Option 2 groups, see description of LEAF Producer Groups)

Note

A LEAF charity member and LEAF Marque certificate is non transferable to another “Company” who may be producing crops from the same land as an existing LEAF charity member who holds a LEAF Marque certificate. 

In all instances, a LEAF Marque Certificate is linked to a unique LEAF Charity membership and is described as the “Company”.

LEAF Producer Group 

“A LEAF Producer Group membership is a group of producers (with their respective production locations) seeking to be LEAF Members and LEAF Marque certified. The structure of the LEAF Producer Group must enable the application of a Quality Management System across the whole group. The Quality Management System (QMS) in place must be sufficiently robust to ensure (and to demonstrate through audits) that the group’s registered producer members/production locations comply in a uniform manner with the LEAF Marque standard requirements. The LEAF Producer Group registered members must be legally responsible for their respective production locations.  

The LEAF Producer Group must comply with the requirements set out in “LEAF Marque certification of LEAF Producer Groups - Quality Management system requirements 2009” to qualify for LEAF Producer Group certification.   

A LEAF Producer Group is not a multi-site operation where an individual or one organisation owns several production locations or “farms”, which in itself are NOT separate legal entities. This type of operation falls under LEAF individual membership and certificates as described above and every production location, farm or site must be inspected and covered under the scope of the certificate.  

[1]Legal Entity– defined as the Company that grows farms and produces the crop from the defined area of land. This could be a person (sole trader) a partnership of people, a cooperative, a business, association, corporation, proprietorship, etc., that has legal standing in the eyes of law.  

[2]Defined Area - The area of land that is identified as on your farm plan or map