Episode 4: Regenerative Organic Alliance Elizabeth Whitlow - What Is Regenerative Organic Certified

Elizabeth Whitlow is the Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. 

Elizabeth has been working in the field of organic agriculture for over 20 years. She began her career as an advocate for shade-grown, fair-trade, and organic coffee growers in Central America. Since then, she has worked across the spectrum of elevated certifications, both in farming and ranching, earning high-level placements with organizations such as CCOF and EarthClaims. Her greatest honor is to serve a planet that is in tremendous need of each and every one of us.

The Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit group of experts in farming, ranching, soil health, animal welfare, and farmer and worker fairness. Led by Rodale Institute and spearheaded by Dr. Bronner’s and Patagonia, other founding members of the Alliance include Compassion in World Farming, Fair World Project, White Oak Pastures, and the Textile Exchange. The Regenerative Organic Alliance has been established to continuously review and update the Regenerative Organic Certified guidelines.

Regenerative Organic Certified is a revolutionary new certification for food, fiber, and personal care ingredients that represents the highest standard for organic agriculture in the world, with stringent requirements for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. It uses the USDA Certified Organic standard as a baseline. From there, it adds important criteria and benchmarks that incorporate the three major pillars of regenerative organic agriculture into one certification.

The Regenerative Organic Alliance envisions a world free of poisonous chemicals, factory farming, exploitation, soil degradation, habitat destruction, pollution, short-term thinking, corporate bullies, greenwashing, and fake food.

 

TOPICS EXPLORED

0:00 – 1:41 – Introduction

1:41 – 3:51 – What is the Regenerative Organic Alliance and what type of work does it do?

3:51 – 11:17 – How is Regenerative Organic Certification similar or different from USDA Certified Organic?

11:17 – 16:31 – Why is it important to have USDA Certified Organic as a foundation for Regenerative Organic Certified?

16:31 – 22:48 – How does Regenerative Organic Certified differ from other certifications that may use the word “regenerative” in their title or the phrase “regenerative” that some large corporations are using that may not have gone through the process of becoming Regenerative Organic Certified?

22:48 – 28:34 – What are the steps a farm must take to become Regenerative Organic Certified?

28:34 – 32:32 – Can you share an example or two of a Regenerative Organic Certified farm either here in the United States or internationally and some of the practices they are using?

32:32 – 34:40 What do you see as the future of the Regenerative Organic Certified movement and how can people become involved and support it?

34:40 – 35:17 – Things to share and wrap up

 

REGENERATIVE ORGANIC ALLIANCE AND REGENERATIVE ORGANIC CERTIFIED INFORMATION

Regenerative Organic Certified: https://regenorganic.org/

Regenerative Organic Certified: @regenerativeorganic

 

RESOURCES

Regenerative Organic Alliance Resources Library: https://regenorganic.org/certification-resource-library/

 

FOOD FOR YOU AND THE PLANET PODCAST INFORMATION

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Podcast Instagram: @foodforyouandtheplanet

 

TAGS

Food

Environment

Health

Agriculture

Organic

Regenerative

Regenerative Organic Alliance

Regenerative Organic Certified

Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Organic

Regenerative Farming

Regenerative Organic Farming