Why We Exist

Fat is good. "Vegetable" oils are bad. Bad for us. Bad for the planet. How bad?

Vegetable oils are terrible for human health. Regular consumption is shown to increase the risk of death by 62%, more than moderate smoking. They're also killing the planet. Four of the top five greenhouse gas emitting crops are industrially produced seed oils. And they are hidden everywhere. The average American consumes a staggering 20% of their calories from vegetable oils.

We're on a mission to replace these "vegetable" oils in the food system. We believe they are the biggest problem when it comes to both rising rates of chronic disease and agricultural impact on climate change and ecosystem destruction. We're using the ancient art of fermentation to make healthier and more sustainable oils and fats. We need your help! Read below to see if your skills can help us make this a movement that changes the world.

About Us

We’re a team of food lovers, nutrition believers, innovators, doctors, PhD’s, and problem solvers. We believe in taking care of our health and our planet’s health without sacrificing the foods we love. We started Zero Acre Farms out of concern for what we’re all involuntarily putting into our bodies and the profound effect it’s having on our health and the natural world.

Zero Acre Farms is backed by an incredible group of investors, including mission-driven VC’s, celebrities, influencers, and change makers.

The Role

The Zero Acre Farms team is looking for a seasoned, self-motivated, deadline-driven Health Science Writer. This is a freelance contractor position.

Zero Acre Farm is a high performance team of experienced entrepreneurs and health enthusiasts working to remove vegetable oils from the food system. We’re passionate about sharing actionable, accurate, science-backed information that changes people’s lives every day.

As a Health Science Writer you will develop engaging, thoughtful, high-quality, science-based content. Attention to detail, organization, clarity, accuracy, and consistency are key.

About You

• You are a senior science writer with a creative side and a sense of humor. You have an uncanny ability to take on the voice and tone of a brand or influencer, all while following our branding/writing guidelines.
• You’re constantly learning and endlessly curious. You’ve got your finger on the pulse of what’s popular in the world of human nutrition, food, and environmental science.
• You’re meticulous when it comes to grammar and flow. Your writing is engaging enough to appeal to a non-scientist, while maintaining a technical/scientific integrity that any scientist, researcher, or doctor would love.
• You set realistic expectations and have a healthy respect for deadlines.
• You deliver stellar, totally original work on time. No repurposing content or recycling already published work. Obviously, plagiarism is bad. Really bad. (And we have a program that screens for this, so … just no.)
• The work you produce for ZAF is the property of ZAF and cannot be used on other sites or in other publications.

Requirements

• 5 years professional science writing/editing experience
• Experience working in a dynamic, deadline and results-oriented environment
• Strong and thorough scientific editing skills, including substantive editing, fact checking, researching, and referencing experience
• Grammar fiend and enthusiast
• Highly proficient in Google Docs
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field such as journalism, nutrition, biology, psychology, neuroscience, medicine, or similar preferred
• Experience writing for the Internet (i.e. SEO-friendly articles) preferred

Responsibilities

• Write 2-4 science-based articles per month, or as assigned by ZAF’s Content Team, adhering to in-house style guidelines
• Provide accurate scientific citations, according to ZAF’s writing guidelines
• Provide a high level of quality regarding content, organization, clarity, accuracy, format, style, and consistency
• Meet established timelines and/or communicate clearly when deadlines can’t be met
• Identify copyrighted material that requires permission for reproduction; process permission request when required

A note from our founders

The majority of Americans are sick. Let that sink in. More people have a chronic disease than not in this country! 6 out of 10. And a hundred years ago, almost no one had a chronic disease. Our healthy life expectancy is decreasing for the first time in recorded history. Our solution so far has been more prescription drugs (in 2018, the average American filled eighteen prescriptions).

Our planet is also being destroyed by the day. The Amazon loses about 2 football fields of rainforest every minute, mostly to grow industrial monocrops like seed oils that make us sick. Species extinction is at an all time high. Some projections say we only have 60 harvests left before our soil doesn't support any more life.

The real issue? These problems are interconnected. We're destroying the planet to grow food that makes us sick.

How is this not one of the most important, urgent, and talked about issues of our generation? We want to change that. We want to slow down and ideally reverse the skyrocketing rates of chronic disease and environmental impact caused by what we eat. We truly believe that we can save millions of lives, as well as millions of acres of rainforest, if we are successful in our mission of replacing destructive vegetable oils in our food supply.

That’s what drives us, and we hope you’ll join us.

Apply

If you are interested in applying, please include a brief cover letter, and tell us about your relevant experience, why you're interested in this role, and what you do in your own life to improve your health and the health of the planet!