New Certification Pathway Addresses Industry Challenges
The Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROC) has launched a groundbreaking new initiative called “Journey to ROC” that aims to reduce greenwashing while scaling regenerative agriculture practices globally. This strategic move comes as the agricultural sector faces increasing pressure to adopt more sustainable practices while maintaining certification integrity. The program represents a significant shift in how regenerative farming standards are implemented and verified across the supply chain.
Christopher Gergen, CEO of the Regenerative Organic Alliance, emphasized the program’s importance: “This is a major step forward for the global regenerative organic movement. We’ve got brands that want to get their supply chains on this path, and we never had a good answer for it. That left open the door of them going to a substandard verification. Now we’ve mitigated that.”
Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Accessibility
The Journey to ROC program creates a partnership between ROC and RegenAgri, another regenerative certifier with less rigorous standards. This collaboration addresses a critical tension in sustainable agriculture – maintaining high standards while encouraging broader adoption. Farms and brands that aspire to achieve ROC Certification but haven’t met its high threshold can now become RegenAgri certified, creating a clear pathway to eventually graduate to full ROC Certification within three to five years.
Franco Costantini, RegenAgri CEO, explained the practical approach: “Farmers start their regenerative organic journeys from a lot of different places depending on their current agricultural practices. We need to meet the farmers where they are.” This philosophy acknowledges the diverse starting points of agricultural operations worldwide while maintaining a clear trajectory toward higher standards.
Addressing Certification Challenges and Market Demands
The Regenerative Organic Alliance, known as the most rigorous among approximately a dozen regenerative agriculture certifications in the marketplace, has faced criticism for its high certification threshold, which includes a baseline of organic farming requirements. This has sometimes led farms and food brands to seek alternative certifications or abandon regenerative agriculture altogether as impractical for their operations.
“The challenge with regenerative claims is that so many of them lack any clearly-defined standard and are not third-party verified,” Gergen noted. “Journey to ROC is a clear, high-integrity pathway to ROC through the path of soil health, with a credible third-party-verified standard like RegenAgri.” This approach mirrors how other industries are developing sophisticated verification systems to ensure transparency and accountability.
Strategic Partnership Criteria and Data Integrity
The alliance conducted diligent efforts to find an appropriate partner, with third-party verified data collection being a non-negotiable requirement. Organizations that don’t conduct third-party audits, such as Regenified, were automatically excluded from consideration. “We needed to make sure that it was of the equivalent quality and transparency of our standard. RegenAgri fits that bill,” Gergen confirmed. “They’ve got very rigorous, transparent standards for soil health and animal welfare.”
A key distinction between the two organizations is that RegenAgri doesn’t require organic farming for its certification, though organic practices remain important. “Organic is very important, but we also know that there are many farms that cannot be,” Costantini acknowledged. “If you are not able to bring farms into the system, they will find it much more challenging to achieve that target.” This pragmatic approach reflects how businesses across sectors are balancing ideal standards with practical implementation.
Market Incentives and Global Expansion
The program creates clear market incentives for participants. “The incentive is the market signal that people have recognized ROC Certification as the highest standard. They are demanding more of it and are willing to pay a premium,” Gergen explained. This premium pricing structure provides economic motivation for farms to progress through the certification levels.
RegenAgri brings significant global reach to the partnership, having certified more than 300,000 farms worldwide in its five-year history. This extensive network is particularly valuable for ROC’s expansion goals outside the United States. Gergen highlighted tens of thousands of RegenAgri Certified cotton farmers in Tanzania as potential candidates for future ROC Certification. The partnership also strengthens ROC’s position in regenerative textiles, an area where RegenAgri has established dominance.
Operational Framework and Continuous Improvement
The Journey to ROC program eliminates the need for re-auditing when farms graduate to full ROC status, streamlining the certification process. However, Gergen emphasized that regenerative agriculture itself is not a destination but an ongoing process. “Demonstrating continual improvement is one of the backbones of this method of farming, which even ROC Certified farms must always prove year after year.” This philosophy of continuous improvement aligns with how technology companies are approaching system optimization through iterative development.
To maintain ROC’s high-standard reputation, brands in the Journey to ROC program won’t be able to display the ROC stamp on packaging until they achieve full certification. Instead, they’ll receive a RegenAgri stamp, providing important visibility for the lesser-known certification while clearly distinguishing between certification levels.
Data Sharing and Impact Measurement
The two organizations will initiate a data-sharing partnership, leveraging their shared focus on practice- and outcome-based standards. “We need to know what is being done and what is achieved in such a way that we know what’s working, what’s not working and where we see more impact,” Costantini explained. “Our standards provide guidance, assurance, consistent ways of quantifying and reporting impact coming from regenerative farming.” This data-driven approach reflects how global businesses are increasingly relying on comprehensive metrics to measure performance and impact.
Industry Context and Consumer Education
The proliferation of regenerative agriculture certifications has created consumer confusion, contrary to the intended purpose of certification programs. Educating consumers about regenerative agriculture basics remains challenging but essential. “If we can get a number of these high quality standards working with one another through this equivalency process,” Gergen noted, “it will become easier for farmers and a lot more straightforward for the industry.” This consolidation effort comes as various sectors face regulatory and standardization challenges in implementing new frameworks.
Currently, RegenAgri isn’t accepted for front-of-package claims at Whole Foods Market, the nation’s largest natural grocer that helped establish USDA Organic guidelines. It remains uncertain whether this new initiative will influence Whole Foods’ certification acceptance policies. Meanwhile, broader economic factors continue to influence agricultural labor markets and operational decisions across the farming sector.
Future Goals and Collaborative Framework
The Regenerative Organic Alliance, formed in partnership with the Rodale Institute in 2017, maintains its commitment to requiring organic farming as a baseline for regenerative certification. While ROA and RegenAgri don’t plan to merge into a single organization, they will work much more closely together. “This goes beyond just certifying farms,” Costantini said. “It creates a framework with brands, helping us and ROC to generate support, drive demand and increase the value of products.”
ROC has established an ambitious five-year goal of adding 100 ROC Certified brands in Europe using ingredients from European ROC Certified farms. The alliance is also seeking pilot program participants within the next year, including CPG brand partners to help create markets and offset transition costs, creating a comprehensive ecosystem for regenerative agriculture expansion.
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