Farm like the world depends on it.
Regenerative Organic Certified® is a revolutionary new certification for food, textiles, and personal care ingredients. ROC™ farms and products meet the highest standards in the world for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness.
ROC™ is overseen by the 501(c)3 nonprofit Regenerative Organic Alliance.
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OUR STORY
Regenerative Organic Certified was established in 2017 by the Regenerative Organic Alliance(ROA), a group of farmers, business leaders, and experts in soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness.
We exist to heal a broken system, repair a damaged planet, and empower farmers and eaters to create a better future through regenerative organic farming.
By adopting regenerative organic practices on more farms around the world, we can create long-term solutions to some of the biggest issues of our time, including the climate crisis, factory farming, and fractured rural economies.
Our Vision
We envision a world free of poisonous chemicals, factory farming, exploitation and income inequality, soil degradation, habitat destruction, pollution, short-term thinking, corporate bullies, greenwashing, and fake food.
Instead, we imagine a world in which farmers, brands, policymakers, educators, researchers, and individuals join together to create a healthy food system that respects land and animals, empowers people, and restores communities and ecosystems through regenerative organic farming.
OUR VALUES
We value the health of our incredible, interconnected planet and all who call it home—those above and below ground.
To ensure a healthy planet, abundant and nutritious food, and thriving people long into the future, we believe in continuously improving the way we farm.
To continuously improve, we believe in collaboration with innovative farmers, researchers, educators, policymakers, businesses, individuals, and others. None of us can do this alone.
Journey to Regenerative Organic Certification
Regenerative Organic Certification was created to leverage and bring together existing high-bar certifications in order to avoid duplicative audits or burdensome paperwork. With USDA Organic certification as a baseline, Regenerative Organic Certification recognizes the strong work already conducted by existing animal welfare and social fairness standard bodies, and therefore, leverages this work as part of the journey to Regenerative Organic Certification.
OUR STORY
Regenerative Organic Certified was established in 2017 by a group of farmers, business leaders, and experts in soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness collectively called the Regenerative Organic Alliance, or ROA.
We exist to heal a broken system, repair a damaged planet, and empower farmers and eaters to create a better future through regenerative organic farming.
By adopting regenerative organic practices on more farms around the world, we can create long-term solutions to the climate crisis, factory farming, and fractured rural economies.
Our Vision
We envision a world free of poisonous chemicals, factory farming, exploitation and income inequality, soil degradation, habitat destruction, pollution, short-term thinking, corporate bullies, greenwashing, and fake food.
Instead, we imagine a world in which farmers, brands, policymakers, educators, researchers, and individuals join together to create a healthy food system that respects land and animals, empowers people, and restores communities and ecosystems through regenerative organic farming.
OUR VALUES
We value the health of our incredible, interconnected planet and all who call it home—those above and below ground.
To ensure a healthy planet, abundant and nutritious food, and thriving people long into the future, we believe in continuously improving the way we farm.
To continuously improve, we believe in collaboration with innovative farmers, researchers, educators, policymakers, businesses, individuals, and others. None of us can do this alone.
Journey to Regenerative Organic Certification
Regenerative Organic Certification was created to leverage and bring together existing high-bar certifications in order to avoid duplicative audits or burdensome paperwork. With USDA Organic certification as a baseline, Regenerative Organic Certification recognizes the strong work already conducted by existing animal welfare and social fairness standard bodies, and therefore, leverages this work as part of the journey to Regenerative Organic Certification.
BOARD MEMBERS OF THE REGENERATIVE ORGANIC ALLIANCE
Elizabeth Whitlow
Regenerative Organic Alliance
LaRhea Pepper
Organic Cotton Farmer, Co-Founder and former CEO of Textile Exchange | LaRheaPepper.com
Angela Jackson
Angela is a certified organic farmer in the USA, advocate, educator, and international lead auditor with more than 15 years of experience in organic inspection, production for crops and livestock, quality assurance, and lead auditing across many organic, environmental, and animal welfare programs for national and private certification programs. Angela brings an international perspective and farmer lens to the ROA team. She lives on her farm in South Dakota with her family.
Charlotte Martin
Growing up on a small farm in rural Massachusetts, Charlotte learned the importance of regenerative organic agriculture and stewardship of the environment. Prior to the ROA, she worked for an organic certification agency, supporting organic audits, and worked on farms internationally, where she gained extensive knowledge of agricultural practices. Her experience allows Charlotte to successfully guide new applicants as they navigate requirements for the program. She lives in Asheville, NC with her dog Stevie.
Paul Alvarez
An advocate for organic, social, and environmental sustainability, Paul comes to us with more than 15 years of experience in designing and implementing strategies, project management, creating frameworks, and external and internal stakeholder management. He is bilingual with cross-cultural and multi-category experience in international contexts. Paul resides in Northern California with his family.
Daniel Araujo
As an agronomist, Daniel has spent 10+ years working with international certifiers dedicated to various organic, social and environmental programs. His experience as an auditor, certification officer and operations manager enable Daniel to constantly improve ROA Standards & Assurance. Based in Brazil, he brings a global south perspective on agri-food and certification systems. Daniel resides in Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Maíra Severo
Passionate about all aspects of agriculture, Maíra has dedicated more than a decade of working with organic certification, small family farmers and social environmental education projects. Her primary focus has always been on sustainable agriculture, with the aim of making our world a fair and healthy place. Maíra brings strong experience in various segments of the certification process, passion for environmental justice, and a background in organizational leadership to the ROA. Maíra lives in the stunning coastal city of Florianopolis, SC Brazil.
Cristina Rodriguez
Cristina has spent the last decade working in South America in agricultural supply chains and operations. Based in Peru, she brings a global Latin America perspective on certification systems. She has supported smallholder farmers in achieving various organic, regenerative, and social fairness certifications across Central and South America. Cristina earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in supply chains, logistics, and agricultural engineering. We are excited for her to bring her expertise to the ROA team and especially to help Spanish speaking growers navigate the process of becoming ROC.
Haley Tardiff
Haley came to the ROA with years of experience in strategic storytelling for environmental non-profits and agriculture media outlets. She has used thoughtful messaging as a tool to enhance mission driven organization goals, ultimately building organization awareness and fostering communal connection. Haley is an advocate for strengthening our food and fiber production systems on both a local and global scale, hoping to bring unified connection back between land and people. Haley and her husband reside in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington State with their dog, cats, chickens, and 80,000 honey bees.