Should Regenerative Agriculture Follow Organic’s Path?
The organic movement forged a path for a federally recognized standard for food. Should regenerative follow its course?
Regenerative agriculture has been the buzzy theme in agriculture for a few years with big investments from big food companies starting in 2020. Big food companies have created programs to engage their suppliers and fund a transition to regenerative practices such as no-tillage, cover cropping, crop and livestock rotation and pollinator-friendly habitats. Private label certifications such as The Savory Institute, the Rodale Institute and A Greener World, have popped up in the last three years, adding a veneer of respectability to such changes. But it’s still the wild west, and these developments haven’t resulted in a shared standard or even a definition that everyone agrees upon.
There isn’t a consensus on what is considered regenerative, how to correctly enforce those changes and how to measure the effects.