Hobby Farms
New Regenerative Farm Certification In The Works
A Greener World s regenerative agriculture pilot program places environmental sustainability, animal welfare and human equity issues front-and-center on the farm.
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Regenerative agriculture isn’t exactly new. But it is gaining momentum with many growers and the customers they serve.
What is it, though?
“To define ‘regenerative’ simplistically, it is a series of farming techniques that leave the soil and water and animals in a better space than when you found them,” Andrew Gunther explains.
Gunther is executive director of A Greener World. The Oregon-based nonprofit is piloting a new Certified Regenerative farming program with 50 farms.
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As the climate crisis intensifies, a growing number of consumers have begun to see healthy soils as a potential solution. As a result, soil-building techniques like cover crops and diverse crop rotations are increasingly in the limelight. But for many dyed-in-the-wool organic farmers, they’re old hat.
“These are practices that have been part of organic certification for decades now,” said Laura Batcha, CEO of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), during a September media briefing to kick off a campaign positioning organic farming as a climate solution.
And while the farming techniques aren’t new, the framing certainly is. For the last two decades, shoppers have primarily chosen organic foods to avoid pesticides and safeguard the health of their families. The industry has largely traded on those concerns to create today’s $50 billion organic market: The Environmental Working Group’s popular Dirty Dozen shoppers’ guides emphasize the potential dangers of pestici