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.
We conducted the Regenerative Organic Certified® Pilot Program in 2019 with 19 farms and brands producing commodities as diverse as dairy, mangoes, and cereal grains everywhere from Nebraska to Nicaragua.
Each farm met with an auditor who analyzed the farm operations against the Regenerative Organic Certified® standards as they were first written. Afterwards, farm participants were invited to provide feedback based on their experience with the audit and prior knowledge of regenerative organic farming systems.
Armed with this feedback and with the help of specialty Task Forces and Advisory Boards compromised of experts in regenerative and organic farming, soil health, animal welfare and social fairness (see below), we revised the framework in June 2020.
Several brands that participated in the Pilot Program have earned the Regenerative Organic Certified® designation:
Pilot Program Participants
- Alexandre Family Farm: Dairy in Crescent City, California
- Apricot Lane Farms: Avocado oil from Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, CA
- Audubon
- Breathe Deep Farm
- Dr. Bronner’s: Virgin Coconut Oil from Serendipol Ltd. in Sri Lanka
- Grain Place Foods: Popcorn and Cornmeal from Marquette, NE
- Guayaki, Misiones, Argentina
- Herb Pharm, Williams OR
- Horizon
- Lotus Foods: Brown and White Basmati Rice from Rohini, India
- Maple Hill Creamery
- Nature’s Path: Oats from Legend Organic farm in Saskatchewan
- Patagonia
- Patagonia Provisions: Regenerative Organic Chile Mango from Sol Simple, Masaya, Nicaragua
- Pratibha
- Sol Simple
- Tablas Creek Vineyards, Paso Robles CA
Task Forces & Advisory Boards
