Regenerative Organic Agriculture Growing Fast, Gaining Advocates
Over the last three decades, Blake Alexandre has witnessed a dramatic increase in soil organic matter on his Cresent City, Calif., organic dairy. While much of the increase occurred before Alexandre ever heard of Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC), today he believes focusing on regenerative principles has helped his staff stay attuned to soil health and has helped the farm continue to increase its soil organic matter.
“We’ve got our employees dialed in and paying attention to it,” Alexandre said.
Alexandre, along with Regenerative Organic Alliance CEO Christopher Gergen, and grower Scott Park, will be panelists on an Organic Grower Summit session titled “Organic + Regenerative: Growing Stronger Together?” The summit is scheduled Dec. 3 and 4 in Monterey, Calif.
Alexandre said he started recognizing the importance of soil organic matter in the early 1990s. Since then, he has witnessed his soil organic matter increase from an average of 2 percent to 10 percent, and has seen a corresponding increase in pasture output.
“The plants get healthier and stronger, and so you end up capturing more sunlight, getting more photosynthesis and everything just snowballs in the right direction,” he said. “If you’re getting organic matter to grow, you’re doing a lot of things correctly.”
In 2020, Alexandre Family Farm became one of the first farms to obtain Regenerative Organic Certification, reportedly the fastest growing agricultural certification today. Today, the farm is one of 67,000 farms in 46 countries to be certified.