By now it’s widely recognized that there’s no one-size-fits-all way to do regenerative agriculture. It follows, then, that a certain amount of diversity is also needed when it comes to regenerative standards and certification.
Whole Foods Market hit this point home less than a month ago when it accepted its fifth regenerative certification, the Soil Climate Initiative (SCI).
Nonprofit SCI is one branch in the larger Soil Climate Alliance network, a collaborative hub between farmers, scientists, brands, and supply chain players aiming to scale regenerative agriculture in North America.
While it offers a pathway to regenerative certification SCI actually began as a program to help more farmers transition to regenerative practices.
For farmers, that transition can come with a learning curve, not to mention additional costs, says Jeff Bos, chief growth and impact officer at SCI. Oftentimes these farmers “have no other option than conventional ways of approaching agriculture.”
“[SCI] started as a transition program to help farmers identify what they need and provide support and services to start the journey wherever they were,” he explains to AgFunderNews.
“It’s a full transition program. We don’t just show up at the door with pens and our clipboards and ask what [farmers] are doing. We have deep relationships with our farmers, and an over 99% retention of farmers in our program.”
‘A true third-party certification’
SCI provides agronomic guidance, soil testing services, and a general support network. For verification of regenerative practices, it provides a pathway—though Bos is quick to point out that SCI is not the one doing the formal evaluation and certification.
That’s the job of SCS Global Services, an independent third-party program. The distinction is important, says Bos.
“A true third-party certification program, like ours or like the ROC [Regenerative-Organic Certified], means there’s a separation between the evaluators and those working to bring the farmers towards certification. Without third-party certification, there is a danger of greenwashing.”
SCI’s role in verification is to help farmers understand what is required, and offer support along that journey, he adds.
“But we’re not the ones evaluating that work and saying they are certified. We have a separate certified entity that’s deeply respected across the space and comes in and does an independent verification.”
‘More than one way’ to regenerative agriculture
Whole Foods Market has its own standards for regenerative agriculture, in line with the five principles of soil health: continuous ground cover, minimizing soil disturbance, building biodiversity, maintaining living roots, and integrating livestock.
“When we’re looking at regenerative agriculture, we’re using that framework as a basis for our understanding of it,” explains Ann Marie Hourigan, executive leader for quality standards at Whole Foods.
Whole Foods currently recognizes four other regenerative agriculture certifications besides SCI: ROC, Regenefied, Ecological Outcome Verified, and Certified by a Greener World.
ROC-certification requires an organic baseline for certification; others, including SCI, don’t. This diversity is critical for making regenerative agriculture possible for a greater number of farmers, she suggests.
“We’re big supporters of the organic industry, but there’s more than one way to meet farmers where they are and encourage them to progress over time. As long as there are metrics in place to show improvement, and those five soil health principles are being addressed, it’s more about regenerating the soil and showing that improvement over time.”
‘A significant step’ for the industry
SCI shares the Whole Foods view of diversity in regenerative agriculture.
We need diversity. We have millions of acres [in North America], and we have farmers in very different regions facing different climactic disruptions.
For example, SCI runs a regenerative rice-growing program in the Mississippi Delta region, an areas where pests and high humidity make it difficult to be organic, let alone regenerative-organic.
“Whole Foods has been bold enough to step forward and say that regenerative, from their standpoint, needs to be more inclusive than just being based on organic,” he says, adding that this is a significant step for the industry.
“Whole Foods is actually playing the gatekeeper, saying to the industry, ‘These are the highest quality standards that make sense, that we’re going to recognize and allow on our shelves.'”
These days, SCI works with a whole range of farmers. “That could be a row crop farmer in Iowa that’s completely conventional. Maybe there’s a generational transition—kids see the numbers and they don’t want to farm the way their parents farmed,” says Bos.
“We work with organic farmers who really want to start geeking out on their soil health, and we work some regenerative organic farmers that can also work as mentors to other farmers in our program.”
