Comparing four new regenerative certification programs
“Is regenerative agriculture an opportunity or a threat to organics?” This was the question posed by Marla Carlson, president of organic connections, at the 2022 Organic Connections Conference. Skepticism is mounting as major agri-food corporations, such as Walmart, General Mills, and Cargill, announce plans to support regenerative agriculture. PepsiCo claims it will support the transition to regenerative agriculture on seven million acres by 2030. Nestle, a company with a Wikipedia article just detailing its controversies, says it will source 50 percent of its ingredients by 2030 from farmers adopting regenerative practices.
Announcements like these lead Carlton and others to ask if corporations will “continue the practices [they] have always done, but make it seem like something different?” Without an established definition of regenerative agriculture, many are concerned that large corporations will water down the narrative until “regenerative” is the new “natural.”
Several regenerative agriculture certifications have been established in the past few years, though, to attempt to hold regenerative agriculture to a rigorous standard. This article will look at how four of these certifications — Regenerative Organic Certified, Regenified, Soil and Climate Initiative, and Integrity Grown — are doing that.
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