Confused about all the regenerative certification coming online? This is your resource to see all the certifications in one place.
Land to Market – Ecological Outcomes Verification (EOV)
What: EOV is a scientific methodology that measures and trends ecological outcomes on participating producers’ land. EOV assesses key indicators of the effectiveness and health of ecosystem processes — criteria such as soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem function (water cycle, mineral cycle, energy flow and community dynamics).
Status: Updated January 2022
- More than 2.5 million acres of land around the world are being monitored for regenerative outcomes, as of January 2022
- 1,000+ products have received the Land to Market Seal
What is Measured: Outcomes
EOV measures regeneration through a host of ecological indicators that are ecoregion specific, including ground cover, water infiltration, biodiversity, and soil carbon and health.
Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC)
What: Regenerative Organic Certification was created to leverage and bring together existing high-bar certifications in order to avoid duplicative audits or burdensome paperwork. With USDA Organic certification as a baseline, Regenerative Organic Certification recognizes the strong work already conducted by existing animal welfare and social fairness standard bodies, and therefore, leverages this work as part of the journey to Regenerative Organic Certification.
Who: Established in 2017 by a group of farmers, business leaders, and experts in soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness collectively called the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA)
Status:
- 2019 Pilot program included 19 farms and brands. More than 10 have received ROC designation.
- View farms and brands with designation here.
What is Measured: Practices
Three pillars of ROC: soil health, animal welfare, social fairness
Third party verification
Regen1
What: REGEN1 supports farmers and ranchers in their transition to regenerative agriculture by helping purchasers better support these producers and by educating consumers on where and how their food is grown. REGEN1 farmers and ranchers are eligible for targeted purchasing commitments that reward them for the outcomes and ecosystem benefits provided by their regenerative practices. REGEN1 is also developing incentives to assist conventional growers in transitioning to regenerative agriculture. The framework is adaptive and guided by the principle of “appropriate scale that scales appropriately”.
Who: The Lexicon, along with over a hundred domain experts across the value chain who worked for over a year in a “food systems solutions accelerator” made possible with support from Food at Google.
Status: N/A
What is Measured: Outcomes
Water, Soil, Biodiversity, Air, Equity
Regenified (formerly known as Regen Earth Verified)
What: In order to get meaningful movement from convention toward regeneration this framework is inclusive as possible on the front end (even if farmers are starting from scratch). Regenified’s 6-3-4™ Verification Standard is based on six principles, three rules, and four processes. It helps farmers and ranchers understand where their practices and lands are at on the regenerative path. The Standard is designed to move entire supply chains toward regenerative agriculture, yielding improved climate effects for our planet and positive health
benefits for the people on it.
Who: Understanding Ag
Status: Launched Spring 2022, recruiting farmers from within Understanding Ag network.
What is Measured: Practices
Verified by internal verification board.
What Makes it Different? Inclusivity of farmers no matter where they are on the regenerative journey.
Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI)
What: A commitment and verification program designed to address the climate and soil crises, scale acres under regenerative management, and contribute to farm prosperity, this program claims to be the first independent third-party regenerative agriculture commitment and verification program open to any farmer, in any production system. The goal of SCI Farm-level Program is to incentivize and support participating farms to have 75%-100% of their farmed acres under regenerative management within 10 years of enrolling in the program.
Who: Green America
Status: 2022 Go-To-Market Pilots Apply by April
What is Measured: Outcomes
Given the variability and uncertainty of specific outcomes on farms, SCI does not require that
key outcome targets are achieved. SCI does verify that the participant farms are actively engaged in their transition plans, are performing and reporting on required testing, are increasing their number of acres transitioned, and are participating in the SCI communities of practice.
Certified Regenerative by A Greener World (AGW)
What: A Greener World (AGW) defines Regenerative Agriculture as a set of planned agricultural practices that ensure the holding is not depleted by agriculture practices, and over time the soil, water, air and biodiversity are improved or maintained to the greatest extent possible.
The Certified Regenerative program functions as a management tool that helps producers meet their own regenerative goals through an audited, regenerative plan—and offers early access to regenerative markets without being certified organic. The program certifies farmers in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, and South Africa.
Who: Established in 2014, A Greener World was created to promote and support real-life farming models to the public and offer practical guidance on achieving truly sustainable livestock farming systems to farmers and ranchers. AGW has a family of 6 total certifications, one of which is their Certified Regenerative program.
Status: Currently in the public review stage of finalizing their standards for the Certified Regenerative by AGW program and are accepting public comment through May 19, 2022.
What is Measured: Practices
- Animal Welfare and Human Health
- Community and Social
- Environment
- Transparency
Third party verification
Related Certifications
Certified Organic
Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products, in the European Union more commonly known as ecological or biological products.
Real Organic Project
Real Organic Project is a grassroots, farmer-led movement and add-on label created to distinguish soil-grown and pasture-raised products under USDA organic.
Demeter Biodynamic Certification
Demeter USA is the only certifier for Biodynamic farms and products in America. Demeter remains the oldest ecological certification organization in the world, active in fifty countries around the globe.
Know of other certifications that should be included in our list or have an update to the current certifications? Email us here.
Read our article Are Regenerative Certifications Poised to Drive Market Growth?