We launched our Regeneration International Standard at the beginning of March 2025. It is on our website’s front page.
Regeneration International offers this standard to a select group of organic certifiers whose systems we have evaluated. It will be available exclusively to organic certifiers, as they possess the most effective systems for verifying farming practices and preventing fraud.
The Regeneration International Standard was initially developed as a fit-for-purpose standard for our Agroecological, Regenerative, and Organic Ecosystem Services (AROES) project.
The final chapter of the Regenerative Agricultural Solution by Ronnie Cummins and I discusses this project in detail.
Although AROES is still under development following the results of our pilot programs, the directors of Regeneration International have chosen to publish and initiate certification for this standard to combat greenwashing and the hijacking of regenerative and organic practices. A key aspect of our standard is clearly defining what is prohibited and therefore not permitted in regenerative agriculture.
The driver for publishing our standard was California’s release of its definition of regenerative agriculture, which permits toxic synthetic chemicals and GMOs. Industrial agriculture and the poison cartels will exploit the promotion of their business-as-usual Roundup Ready no-till GMOs as regenerative. Pesticide purveyors, such as Bayer/Monsanto and Syngenta, are branding their degenerative systems as regenerative. Large agribusinesses are greenwashing their extensive use of industrial synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers as regenerative. They have managed to do this with sustainable agriculture to the point that it is now considered meaningless.
We must confront hydroponics, APEEL, CAFOs, and synthetic feed supplements, which are gaining worldwide acceptance in organic regulations. GM vaccines, the clearing of old-growth ecosystems, and soil carbon loss are the elephants in the room.
Another driver was multiple requests from farmers and certifiers for an international, standalone regenerative standard.
Initially, Regeneration International opposed the development of regenerative standards. However, as more standards were developed, we decided to review them. Opposing them was a waste of time and counterproductive.
Ronnie Cummins and I recognized the need to scale agroecological, regenerative, and organic systems to restore our ecosystems, climate, and communities. After several years of research examining markets, standards, and verification systems, our concerns regarding the credibility of carbon credits and biodiversity offset schemes grew. We explored all current standards and concluded that we needed to establish our own fit-for-purpose standard because the existing ones were inadequate for AROES.
When Ronnie and I discussed the necessity of our fit-for-purpose standard, we agreed it would be more stringent than the USDA organic regulation and would prohibit provisions for industrial organic hijacking. Our standard begins with Regeneration International’s definition of regenerative practices and the criteria for interpreting them. The explicit prohibitions within this standard ensure its integrity surpasses that of the USDA organic regulation, other national organic standards, and regenerative and agroecological standards.
Clearly defining what is prohibited and thus not allowed in regenerative agriculture is the simplest way to identify what is degenerative and therefore not regenerative.
Prohibitions
- Synthetic pesticides
- Synthetic animal feed supplements
- Synthetic food additives
- Water-soluble chemical fertilizers, except for correcting deficiencies with trace elements
- Sewerage sludge/biosolids
- GMOs, including gene editing and GMO vaccines
- Nanotechnology
- Animal cruelty – all animals must be able to express their natural habits.
- Confined Animal Feeding Operations – all animals must spend adequate time on pasture and/or their natural habitat.
- Hydroponics – all systems must be soil-based.
- Clearing old growth and high-value ecosystems,
- Damaging tillage
- Burning crop residues, except for cool-season mosaic burns in First Nation agroecosystems
- Grazing that produces bare soil
The Regeneration International Standard is clear and straightforward, rather than a lengthy or complex regulatory document. It aims to be user-friendly for farmers and landholders, especially since many farmers in the developing world have limited education and find it challenging to understand complicated certification standards. This standard was crafted with the initial intentions of organic standards before they evolved into extensive regulatory frameworks that can be costly in both time and money for farmers to comply with. Although it includes more prohibitions, it remains a significantly easier and more approachable certification standard.
Along with the prohibitions, it utilizes principles and guidelines instead of mandated practices, allowing farmers and land managers to select the most suitable practices and inputs while fostering innovation. The primary aim of this standard is to catalyze a paradigm shift from the current degenerative industrial-agricultural systems to ones that restore soil, biodiversity, climate, community, equity, care, and health. The standard empowers operators (farmers, ranchers, land managers, First Nations owners, etc.) to take the lead in defining their individual paradigm shifts.
Operators can get certified to the following levels.
Regenerative A Grade – meeting all the requirements
Regenerative in Transition – in the process of meeting all the requirements
Under our standard, most currently certified regenerative and organic systems would be classified as Regenerative in Transition, as they permit prohibited inputs and practices. Certified operators need a transition plan that outlines the timeline for reducing and eliminating prohibited products or production methods. There is no set period for operators to transition to Regenerative A Grade. However, all operators certified to Regenerative in Transition must specify time frames and methods for eliminating prohibited inputs and practices. This should be revised annually, with an emphasis on continual improvement.
The operators’ management plan will serve as the primary driver of the paradigm shift. It enables operators to make decisions based on the best practices and inputs.
Operators can achieve certification to the Regeneration International Standard as a standalone option, without needing certification to other standards. However, they can also certify to their respective national organic standards, as well as to additional standards and schemes. Our aim is to make this standard as farmer-friendly as possible, allowing operators to choose the options that best suit their businesses and markets.
The standard serves as an excellent guide for those who are not yet ready for certification. Two versions of the standard are available. A user-friendly version can be found on the website. https://regenerationinternational.org/ This version is designed to assist farmers, ranchers, and land managers in transitioning to regenerative systems.
A detailed version with guidance is utilized for certification purposes. (https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/Regeneration-International-Standard-and-Guidance-with-numbering-V2-April-2025.pdf)
The standard and guidance documents are being translated into Spanish and will soon be implemented in Latin America. We plan to roll them out across the 80 countries on every continent where we have partners.
The standards and guidance are living documents. We will regularly revise them based on feedback from certifiers and operators.
At some point in the future, we will invite certified operators to join our AROES project and receive funding for their ecosystem services.
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