Elizabeth Whitlow is executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), a nonprofit organization that oversees Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC), a rigorous new certification for food, textiles, and personal care ingredients. With a career spanning over 20 years in organic ag, Elizabeth has worked for a number of farming and ranching certification organizations, including CCOF and EarthClaims. She joined OPN for a conversation about why ROC was founded, the overall framework of the certification, ROA's decision to prohibit soilless practices, and more.
What led to the creation of the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) and Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC)?
The Regenerative Organic Alliance was founded by Rodale Institute, Patagonia, and Dr. Bronner’s soap company in 2017. ROA also includes a group of experts in farming, ranching, soil health, animal welfare, and farmer and worker fairness.
ROC was created because regenerative organic agriculture has the potential to address many of today’s pressing problems, including the climate crisis, factory farming, and fractured rural economies. Industrial agriculture and factory farming of animals are top contributors to climate change. In turn, climate change is making it harder to farm.
ur conventional farming system has degraded the soil to dangerous levels around the world. Farmers and farmworkers are too often exploited, and rural economies are suffering. We need to make clear, calculated changes to our food and fiber systems to make regenerative organic the new model. If we adopt regenerative organic practices on more farms, we’ll see improvements in soil health, the well-being of animals, farmers, workers, and the climate itself.
"ROC was created because regenerative organic agriculture has the potential to address many of today’s pressing problems, including the climate crisis, factory farming, and fractured rural economies." -Elizabeth Whitlow
Why did ROA choose to have ROC build on the USDA organic certification (and also recognize other certifications like Demeter Biodynamic)?
USDA Certified Organic is a reputable, important designation, and we’re grateful for the tremendous efforts made by many to grow the organic market into what it is today. ROC is not intended to replace USDA Organic but to set a new standard for what’s possible in our food and farming systems by adding additional criteria for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. Regenerative Organic Certified builds on USDA organic, and only products that are certified under the USDA organic program are eligible to apply for ROC. We believe “regenerative” and “organic” should always go together, so we created ROC to make sure they’d always be linked.
Farms applying for ROC are encouraged to pursue other existing high-bar standards such as Demeter Biodynamic, Global Animal Partnership, and Equitable Food Initiative, among others. By holding such existing certifications, they demonstrate that they meet a portion of the ROC criteria right away. Our goal is not to duplicate efforts but to bring certification for all three areas—soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness—under one umbrella label.
"If we adopt regenerative organic practices on more farms, we’ll see improvements in soil health, the well-being of animals, farmers, workers, and the climate itself." -Elizabeth Whitlow
Farms applying for ROC are encouraged to pursue other existing high-bar standards such as Demeter Biodynamic, Global Animal Partnership, and Equitable Food Initiative, among others. By holding such existing certifications, they demonstrate that they meet a portion of the ROC criteria right away. Our goal is not to duplicate efforts but to bring certification for all three areas—soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness—under one umbrella label.
"If we adopt regenerative organic practices on more farms, we’ll see improvements in soil health, the well-being of animals, farmers, workers, and the climate itself." -Elizabeth Whitlow
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