The Push to Standardise Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture has become the ‘new normal’ for companies looking to reduce carbon emissions and protect soil health. But with no standardised definition, measurement protocols, or set practices, organisations are charting their own path.

Introduced by US-based Rodale Institute in the early 1980s, the term ‘regenerative agriculture’ has become one of the food and agriculture world’s favourite buzzwords over recent years. According to the term’s Founder Robert Rodale, regenerative agriculture is a kind of farming that goes beyond sustainable to one that actively improves the health and productivity of land and soils. And while this alternative to today’s traditional farming approaches offers a positive approach to rebuild the way we grow food, it comes with its own set of issues. 

Regenerative agriculture is increasingly catching the eye of large agrifood organisations looking to capitalise on new government funding opportunities supporting the transition towards lower impact food production and net-zero emissions targets. In April this year, the USDA (U.S Department of Agriculture) set aside USD1.5 billion to help the nation’s farmers accelerate conservation and climate-smart agricultural practices. With some of the world’s largest food producers joining the movement, regulating the multi-billion dollar regenerative agriculture market is becoming more important than ever. 

Big commitments 

Some of the world’s largest agri-food companies such as Nestlé, Mondelez International, and General Mills are now on the regenerative agriculture bandwagon, making pledges to incorporate new practices or reach new sustainability goals. But while this is a seemingly positive step in the right direction, the lack of globally recognised standards for regeneratively farmed products draws questions about what these companies are truly doing to deliver on their pledges. This sentiment was reflected in a recent report from collaborative investor network FAIRR. According to the report, more than half of the companies with regenerative agriculture promises do not have measurable goals to achieve their targets.¹

Considering the rapid uptake of regenerative agriculture methods by global corporations, many organisations are now either independently or collectively establishing their own standards for regenerative agriculture. This does offer some clarity, but it does not solve the risk of self-regulating organisations creating their own regulatory silos, where the definitions of regenerative agriculture and how to quantify it differs. Ultimately, these silos could allow certain companies to produce a set of standards that works better for them to meet their own definitions of regenerative, but worse for others. In 2023, the Food and Land Use Coalition published a report highlighting the need to level the playing field with an outcome based framework to define, measure, and assess what can and cannot be deemed to be truly ‘regenerative’.² 

Read if big companies can really go regenerative here.

Do certification options already exist?

Currently, there is no widely recognised, standardised certification for regenerative agriculture. At least not in a way that is comparable to the strictly regulated and recognisable certifications like Fair Trade or EU Organic. However, there are several organisations that have tasked themselves with the mission to help define and regulate regenerative agriculture for organisations looking to join the movement.

Regenerative Organic Certification

Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC) is a new certification for food, textiles and personal care ingredients developed by the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), a group of experts in farming, ranching, soil health, animal welfare, and farm worker fairness. Established in 2017, the ROA was founded by the Rodale Institute, Dr. Bronner’s and Patagonia. 

The Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) operates by building upon the foundation of the existing USDA organic standard - an organic food standard regulated by the USDA. All foods displaying the USDA organic seal must meet the organisation’s criteria for soil quality, animal raising, pest control, use of additives, amongst other factors. But as regenerative agriculture extends beyond the goals of organic, the ROC added additional criteria that ensure the prioritisation of soil health, animal welfare, and farmer/worker fairness. 

To become ROC certified, applicants must first meet the USDA organic seal’s requirements before they are eligible to apply. Once they’ve met these requirements, farmers or cooperatives can then apply for all, or a portion of their land and crops to be certified under the ROC programme.³ Companies who are using ROC ingredients in their produce can then apply to become ‘ROC’ licensed, with all consumer brands that are ROC certified able to display an ROC logo on their packaging. As of April 2024, ROC has 194 licensed brands and over 1,605 certified products.⁴

While there are now 13 different certifying bodies approved and trained by ROA to certify in 95 countries around the world, for now, it is still a voluntary certification and not legally mandated by any country.⁵ However, the European Unions’ Farm to Fork Strategy does integrate some principles of regenerative agriculture into its mandate which aims to make the EU climate neutral by 2050. This includes a 50% reduction in the use of chemical pesticides by 2030, and using organic farming in at least 25% of all agricultural land by 2030.⁶

The SAI Platform

The SAI Platform is a non-profit network of over 170 global members working to advance sustainable agriculture practices. In September 2023, the network released a global framework known as the ‘regenerating together programme’ to offer an aligned definition of regenerative agriculture. The program enables the agricultural industry to translate global concepts into actions at the farm level. 

Amongst its 170+ committed members are some of the largest agri-food manufacturers, retailers, traders, farmer cooperatives in the agricultural supply chain - including Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Starbucks, Unilever, Bayer, Nestle, Pepsico and Danone. Unilever’s Vice President of Business Eric Soubeiran says on the Unilever website, “SAI Platform’s ‘Regenerating Together’ programme has grown from the industry recognising that we must evolve our approach to sustainable agriculture, to an agreement that we need to drive measurable outcomes to create a resilient food supply chain.” ⁷

The framework identifies four key impact areas (water, soil, biodiversity and climate), and is divided into four parts. These parts consist of a global regenerative agriculture framework, an outcome assessment, reporting process and a final part on transition support and implementation guidance. To keep the framework accessible, the SAI’s guidelines are intentionally flexible, allowing farmers or businesses to freely choose from the most appropriate practices and principles that best fit their circumstances, so long as they lead to improved performance.⁸

Unlike ROC, SAI’s 'Regenerating Together' programme doesn’t offer a licence or certification, but it does offer farmers support in their journey to developing and refining their regenerative agriculture plans. More notably, the SAI framework does not include a social welfare element, a similarly key aspect of the ROC standard.

Challenges with a global standard

With common mandatory regenerative standards yet to be pinned down, companies looking to pursue their own set of self-made standards have highlighted some of the difficulties associated with creating standard industry regulations around ‘regenerative’. FoodUnfolded spoke to two companies that have taken the development of regenerative farming standards into their own hands that extend beyond the food and agriculture space. 

Dr. Bronner’s (ROC)

One company embracing the growth of a clear framework for regenerative agriculture is California-based Dr. Bronner’s, a producer of soaps and skincare products. In 2015, Dr Bronner’s decided to join forces with Patagonia and Rodale Institute to develop the Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC). 

David Bronner lobbying for industry-wide standards regarding what constitutes "natural" and "organic” (Michael Williamson via Getty Images).

The ROC was intended to act as a ‘lighthouse’ and guiding tool for farmers and other brands with the goal to collectively scale regenerative agriculture at a faster rate. Regenerative Project Manager, Ryan Zinn, shared that defining the term ‘regenerative’ is a big challenge in itself. “Some members think it has to be limited to soil health practices, while Dr. Bronners want to ensure that also all stakeholders are fairly treated, and that agrochemicals are limited.” 

Another difficulty is getting farmers on board as many are not ready to pay the cost of certification or to have their practices scrutinised. The cost for a farmer to become ROC certified can range from USD 250 to USD 20,000 for larger operations. To account for this, Dr. Bronner’s incorporates the certification fee into their own production costs, to encourage more producers to “give it a shot”. 

Zinn told FoodUnfolded that suitable monitoring technology will help propel the implementation of regenerative agriculture on farms. “It’s time consuming to track soil samples farm by farm. Dr. Bronner’s work with 10,000 small scale farmers, it’s unrealistic. I hope there will be technology that can track progress in a way that’s much more cost-effective.”

Danone (Regenerative Agriculture Scorecard)

Another company pioneering their own regenerative standards is multinational food conglomerate Danone. Working with WWF France to create its own Regenerative Agriculture Scorecard (‘the scorecard’), Danone’s approach to regenerative is centred around four main impact categories: soil, manure, biodiversity, and water. Launched in 2021, the scorecard was designed to be used as a regenerative guide by Danone’s farming partners, as well as those outside their value chain, and has since then been used for over 2000 farm assessments. 

As Danone sources a large variety of raw produce, designing a universal framework that is broad, yet adaptable to different raw materials was a big challenge. Anne Sueur from Danone’s Communications team told Food Unfolded, “It is important to have a framework that has stringent requirements while being broad enough to apply to different farming systems.”

Danone breaks down their methodology into three main steps. The first step involves verifying on-farm management practices and increasing supply chain transparency. The second step involves creating a tool for farmers to understand baselines, identify strengths and determine areas for improvement. The final step focuses on building insights on how agricultural practices can improve planetary health. Similar to Dr. Bronner’s, a key consideration for Danone is trying to minimise impact on farmer yields. “We really tailor the programmes to local systems, we cannot blindly follow other programs even if it has worked for some farmers. This is a complex, and long-term process”, says Sueur.

Pragmatic optimism for regenerative agriculture’s future 

Though regulating regenerative agriculture is a long-term process, these two examples have illuminated several challenges and opportunities. 

A key challenge is defining regenerative agriculture and what it involves. Linked to this is the development of a framework for applying and assessing it. The framework must be coherent, yet agile enough to cater to different farming systems. Finally, for organisations such as the ROC, it is an additional hurdle to convince farmers who are on the edge to pay the premium for certification. 

However, opportunities abound in this process. Collating insights from producers, scientists and other stakeholders can accelerate the scaling of regenerative practices. Creating other online or physical spaces for insight sharing might also spark technological innovation in the area. Lastly, the opportunity to collectively work towards a healthier food system must not be forgotten. 

Diversity in crops and topographies, and unpredictable climates render the transition to regenerative farming a high hurdle. However, with experts in farming, climate science, biodiversity, and other fields coming together to regenerate nature, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel.