Why Regenerative Farming Needs Organic Certification-And Vice Versa

Consumers are rebelling against a food system where causing harm is a basic function of doing business. They are demanding healthier food that heals the planet, that is beneficial to workers and kinder to animals. Progressive sectors of the food industry have responded in kind, with a spate of new supply chain and production rubrics under the heading of “regenerative”.

One of the leading lights in this movement is Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC), a three-tiered framework encouraging continuous improvement upon a Certified Organic baseline. Launched in 2017, ROC founders understood that organic was among the most popular and trusted food production standards. ROC now has over 5.7 million acres under cultivation with 50,000+ farms, 370 crops, 118 brands and over 800 products. ROC-certified brands such as Simpli, GoodSam and Lundberg Family Farms continue to rack up industry awards and kudos, while allied organizations such as Mad Agriculture have committed over $50 million in funding to scale up such practices.

We recently spoke with Elizabeth Whitlow, Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance about what is driving these trends.

Errol Schweizer: Tell us a bit about Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC). 

Elizabeth Whitlow: The Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) came together in 2017 and was spearheaded by Patagonia, Dr. Bronner's and The Rodale Institute. And these are all organizations that had worked in organic for a long time. Organic is part of their DNA. And organizations that really question the assumptions of business as usual. And they wanted to continue to support organic, but they saw a lot of opportunities to really advance an agricultural system that was more encompassing, more holistic. The whole idea is that shoppers could be assured at a glance that whatever they're purchasing, it's going to make a positive impact at every level: environmental, ethical and social. And so the ROC farms and products are meeting the highest standards across these three pillars. That's soil health, animal welfare and social fairness of the labor. The ROA is a nonprofit and oversees the standard. We work with third party, accredited certifiers. We require organic as our baseline, and we build from there. 

S: The “R” word: regenerative. It seems to be overused lately. Why is that? 

EW: Regenerative has become quite a buzz word. It's a really hot marketing term and anything that is a hot marketing term is going to be subject to greenwashing. You see some really big corporations jumping on board and wanting to claim regenerative and become regenerative. To regenerate is to give life, to bring life back. Regenerating the soil, regenerating a community. Not detracting, not degenerating, and moving away from a system of agriculture that we have had for 75 years that is incredibly exploitive, extractive. It is high input, high output, it's taking away everything. It is taking away the health of the people, the health of the rivers, the health of the soil, the health of air. It's only lining the pockets of the big corporations and the really big farms that are pushing this kind of industrial monoculture system. So we want to look at agriculture through that lens of how indigenous people did for thousands of years before we entered into this chemically based agriculture in the last 75-100 years. At the end of the day, the major driving force for everybody's extreme interest in regenerative is climate change. 

ES: What does ROC talk about when it says “soil health”? 

EW: We are very much aligned with other regenerative efforts. You are going to keep the soil covered, like basically an armor over the soil, keep living roots in the ground whenever possible, minimize your disturbance of the soil, moving away from really heavy tillage and heavy equipment, bringing in biodiversity whenever possible or increasing diversity through cover cropping. And crop rotation requirements that go above and beyond the federal law for organic, where we have bronze, silver and gold levels, a program that builds continuous improvement. We also really try to encourage doing rotational grazing with animals and bringing animals back onto the farm. So those are some core principles that I think are in solid agreement across the board. 

ES: Why don't you tell us a bit about the animal welfare standards? 

EW: We recognize 14 different global certification programs, really high bar animal welfare programs. We've learned a lot from many in that industry. We look at the Animal Welfare Approved Certified Humane Pasture Systems. The Global Animal Partnerships Step 4 and 5. We also uplift the 5 basic principles of animal welfare. Freedom from discomfort, fear, hunger, pain. I'd say the most important one is the freedom to express natural behavior for that species. If it's poultry, they like to forage and pack. They need trees to take cover from. They don't want to be out in open fields with predators flying overhead. So things like really understanding the species and what their natural tendencies are. Also looking at suitable shelter and limited transport times. That's really challenging because we've got a highly consolidated meat industry and not a really strong infrastructure for processing animals. 

ES: ROC also has a human labor/social responsibility component. What does it encompass and what are some of the opportunities with it as well? 

EW: That social fairness pillar is one of the most challenging aspects of this program. There's a lot of different certifications available that verify fair labor practices. Fair Trade International, Fair Trade USA, Fair For Life, Small Producer Symbol, Naturland Fair, Agricultural Justice Project and the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI). We had some real struggles in applying the social fairness pillar in the global north, in the US in particular, because some of the programs weren't as widespread or weren't as applicable. For example, EFI is the third leg of their stool which is looking at food safety, environmental practices and labor practices. And it's for really big buyers. So it's not applicable to a more diversified farm that is not really selling to Costco or TargetTGT. 

When we talk about vulnerable workers we get about 10% of the engagement on our social channels (as talking about soil health). We really need to do a better job helping everybody understand the plight of the workers. They're sometimes in a working environment classified as slavery and other really egregious examples of labor exploitation. And so these are really dire issues. We're working on a guideline for farmers and farm workers so that we can help the farm workers understand what their rights are. If you talk to any of the Global North farms who have been through our certification program, what they see is how an empowered workforce actually is more productive, morale is better, they get along better, broken equipment gets repaired sooner. 

Our social standards are quite strong. One criteria is around getting to a living wage. It's a tall order for farmers to be paying a living wage, but everybody should be earning a living wage. 

At the end of the day, we are a certification. We are a logo that is put on pack for consumers to buy something. We are not able to have such contractual relationships like the Fair Food Program. I think they're very best in class. And what they're doing is incredible. But that's not our mechanism. 

I still think there's a long way to go for improvement, but we're on a good track and the main thing is that we don't want to have all this focus on soil health without considering the health of the people who work the soil. 

ES: What is next for ROC?

EW: We're going to be really hitting hard in the marketing and helping retailers explain to consumers why it's important to have third party, credible, meaningful third party certification, why organic matters. Organic has its limitations, but it's still the best thing we've got. 

We need to move policymakers to understand all the beautiful benefits that organic is bringing. Look at the Organic Hotspots Study from OTA to look at what happens in every community where there's more organic farming, more organic businesses, healthier people, better economic returns, more resilience. 

I'm not going to waste my time talking with the people who don't believe it or think it's too hard. No, it's not too hard. And chemicals are bad for us. Chemicals kill us. Go watch Common Ground. See what happens with all the chemicals that are being applied in that film. We don't need to keep applying chemicals. We can do organic. And I believe that it's just a matter of we keep talking about what we can do instead of what we can't do.