Growing Outside the Lines: A Shared Past, Present, and Future of Regenerative Organic Agriculture

Co-written by the Regenerative Organic Alliance & Gaia Herbs®

Industrial agriculture depends on tidy categories. Inputs in, outputs out. Bigger. Faster. Cheaper.

At Gaia Herbs® every herbal supplement starts long before the bottle – it starts in the soil. But living systems, and the people who care for them are rarely tidy, and don’t come with the same costs.

Both the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) and Gaia Herbs® were built on a quiet refusal to accept agriculture as a purely industrial exercise. Not out of contrarian instinct, but out of necessity. Because when you work closely with soil, plants, and people, you quickly learn that extracting value without consequence is a myth.

This shared understanding; that agriculture is alive, relational, and deeply contextual, has shaped where we’ve come from, where we are now, and where we’re headed together.

Before “regenerative” entered the mainstream conversation, both organizations were already pushing against the limits of conventional systems, each from a different starting point, but with the same unease.

For Gaia Herbs®, that unease surfaced early. Building an herbal supplement company meant confronting supply chains and farming practices that often treated medicinal plants as interchangeable commodities, disconnected from the land and the people who tended them. From the beginning, Gaia chose a different path: working directly with farmers, investing in long-term soil health, and prioritizing ecological integrity over speed or scale. The herbal tradition has always been rooted in Indigenous knowledge, lived experience, and deep relationships between people and the natural world. Gaia honored this wisdom from the start, recognizing that we were entering into that relationship with intention and a responsibility to share the products born from it with integrity.

At the same time, leaders across farming, brands, and advocacy communities, including the organizations that would go on to found Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™): the Rodale Institute, Dr. Bronner’s, and Patagonia; were recognizing a parallel problem. While organic agriculture marked critical progress, it was never designed to fully address climate resilience, soil degradation, or social fairness as a unified system. What was missing was something more complete: not just a higher standard, but a different way of relating to agriculture altogether. One that honored the interconnected reality of farms, rather than reducing them to inputs, outputs, margins, and spreadsheets.

What bound these early efforts together was not opposition for its own sake, but a shared refusal to flatten complexity. Neither organization aimed to disrupt agriculture for the sake of it, they aimed to tell the truth about it and maintain the highest level of integrity when participating in it.

Today, that early resistance has taken form through accountability, measurement, and collaboration.

Regenerative Organic Certification® exists to protect the integrity of regeneration as it gains traction, integrating soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness into a single, rigorous, third-party verified standard. In a landscape crowded with greenwashing or “regen-washing” claims, ROA’s role is to hold the line: ensuring that regenerative organic remains grounded in practice, not aspiration, and never reduced to marketing alone. For consumers, the ROC™ seal signals a clear set of commitments; an assurance that what you’re buying supports a more holistic system of care:

• Soil Health – Farming practices that rebuild soil organic matter, enhance biodiversity, and restore the land rather than deplete it
• Animal Welfare – Respect for animals raised in conditions that allow for natural behaviors, humane treatment, and overall well-being
• Social Fairness – Safe, equitable working conditions and economic fairness for farmers, farmworkers, and communities

Together, these pillars move beyond single-issue solutions, offering a more complete picture of what responsible agriculture can and should be. And as the movement grows, so does its impact: since first certifying in 2020, ROC™ now includes more than 350 licensed brands, over 530 certified farms and ranches, and more than 61,000 smallholder farmers across 45 countries – representing upwards of 20 million certified acres. Today, it stands as one of the fastest-growing product claims in the natural channel, signaling not just momentum, but a meaningful shift in how agriculture is valued and verified.

For Gaia Herbs®, aligning with ROC™ didn’t require reinvention. It offered validation. In 2022, Gaia Herbs® earned silver-level Regenerative Organic Certified® status from the Regenerative Organic Alliance®, a milestone that reflects the company’s commitment to regenerative agriculture and its vital role in supporting biodiversity, protecting the health of the planet, and enhancing human well-being. The journey began in 2021, when Gaia set out to move beyond traditional organic standards by meeting ROC™’s rigorous requirements. The certification gave formal recognition to principles Gaia was already putting into practice, from seed stewardship and dignified treatment of farmworkers to ethical sourcing and long-term supplier partnerships rooted in trust rather than transactions.

This year, Gaia Herbs® is excited to launch our first Regenerative Organic Certified® herbal tinctures. Explore them here and shop with purpose.

Together, this work represents a modern expression of anti-industrial agriculture. It’s not defined by what it rejects, but by what it chooses instead. Depth over shortcuts. Accountability over convenience. Systems designed to support life, even when that complexity resists current industrial logic.

As regeneration moves from margin to mainstream, the question ahead isn’t whether it will grow, but how.

For The ROA, the future lies in expanding regenerative organic agriculture without losing the principles that give it meaning. Growth and market demand for ROC™ products must strengthen ecosystems and communities, not dilute standards or compromise accountability. Scaling regeneration requires care, collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to integrity.

For Gaia Herbs®, the future is inseparable from stewardship. As demand for herbal wellness continues to grow, so does the responsibility to cultivate medicinal plants in ways that restore the land and honor the people who tend it. Because the truth is, holistic wellness begins long before a product reaches the shelf. It begins in the soil, in the sunlight, and in the shared knowledge that empowers people to care for themselves and the planet. It is no longer simply about expanding or increasing output; instead, growth becomes a means to restore and heal, rather than to exploit or extract resources.

While their roles differ, both organizations share a long-range view: agriculture doesn’t need further simplification to succeed. It needs systems that respect complexity, relationships, and care, even if that means continuing to operate outside the lines the current industrial complex prefers.

The ongoing collaboration between the Regenerative Organic Alliance and Gaia Herbs®, along with many Regenerative Organic Certified™ brands and producers, reflects more than shared values. It reflects a shared understanding that the most resilient agricultural futures are shaped by those willing to question dominant systems and choose life-centered alternatives. It also recognizes a deeper truth: movements like this are only as strong as our willingness to collaborate, align, and join forces. Together, The ROA, Gaia Herbs®, and stakeholders large and small across the industry will continue pushing from our many small islands of good toward a unified force for change—one trusted seal, one brand, and one acre at a time.

Regenerative Organic agriculture doesn’t ask more of us; it asks us to think differently, and to act with intention. It invites brands, farmers, retailers, and consumers alike to slow down, look closer, and reconsider how health is created in the first place. For consumers, that can start with everyday choices: seeking out products that carry the Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™) seal, or at minimum choosing certified organic; sharing what you’re learning with your community; or taking the time to understand where your food and herbal products come from. These decisions, while small on their own, help shape the systems behind them. Because health cannot be extracted from land, people, or systems built on pressure and pace; it must be cultivated through care, relationship, and time. This isn’t a call for perfection, but for responsibility; an invitation to participate, in whatever ways are possible, in solutions that honor the interconnected lives of soil, plants, people, and place.

As farmer and author Wendell Berry reminds us, this is ultimately the measure that matters most:

For The ROA and Gaia Herbs®, the path forward is clear: grow outside the industrial lines, together, and invite others to join.

Ready to discover herbal wellness rooted in regeneration? Shop Gaia Herbs® organic herbal supplements, crafted with care for people, plants, and the planet.