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Regenerative Organic Certified: what it is and what it signals

Regenerative Organic Certified is an add-on certification built on top of organic certification. It covers three areas at once, soil health, animal welfare and fairness to farmers and farmworkers, and it is awarded at one of three levels. The certified operations are listed publicly.

Type
Certifications and standards
Run by
Regenerative Organic Alliance
Headquarters
United States
Official site
https://regenorganic.org/
Public list
https://regenorganic.org/certified-farm-ranch-directory

What Regenerative Organic Certified is

The programme is a certification "for food, textiles, and personal care ingredients" organised around three pillars: soil health and land management, animal welfare, and farmer and farmworker fairness. Rather than replacing organic certification, it sits above one. Certified operations must "maintain and demonstrate current certification to USDA/NOP Organic (or an approved international equivalent)".

The seal comes in three tiers, Bronze, Silver and Gold, which say how far an operation has gone against the requirements rather than whether it passed or failed. That makes the level a material part of any claim: two certified farms at different tiers are not making the same statement.

Who runs it and since when

The certification "is overseen by the 501(c)3 nonprofit Regenerative Organic Alliance". The Alliance writes the standard and the pillar guidance documents, maintains an operations manual for certification bodies, and approves the bodies allowed to audit against it.

It does not audit directly. A published list of approved certifying bodies carries out the verification work, which is the same separation of standard-setter from auditor that organic and fair trade programmes use. Because the programme requires an existing organic certification as a prerequisite, part of the assurance behind any Regenerative Organic Certified claim is actually work done by a different certifier under a different standard.

How an organization gets it

An operation first satisfies the required baseline certifications, which the programme assesses through an equivalency review where the baseline was issued under another scheme. USDA or NOP organic certification, or an approved international equivalent, is the entry condition for the soil pillar; the animal welfare and fairness pillars have their own accepted baseline certifications.

The operation then applies to an approved certifying body, which audits against the three pillars and the operations manual the Alliance publishes for certifiers. A level is assigned as part of that assessment. Certification is maintained through annual renewal applications and assessments, so both the organic baseline and the regenerative layer have to stay current. Fees are set by the certifying body and are not published centrally.

What it signals, and what it does not

A listing tells you that a named producer holds a current organic baseline, was audited by an approved certifying body against three separate pillars, and was placed at a stated level. Reading all three pillars together is the point of the programme; a producer cannot pass on soil practice alone.

It is not a company rating. It covers the certified operation and the crops or livestock listed, so a brand can sell one certified ingredient alongside products that carry no certification. The tier is not a performance score of outcomes, and the certification does not measure yields, emissions or farmer incomes. It also does not speak to a business's finances, governance or the share of its revenue that comes from certified production.

How to verify a claim

Check the certified farm and ranch directory. Each record shows the operation name, its city and country, the crops or livestock it produces, and its certification level, so you can confirm both that a producer is certified and what tier and products the certification covers.

Because certification depends on a current organic baseline, verify that separately: a lapse in the underlying organic certificate undermines the regenerative claim regardless of what a directory page shows. The Alliance notes that the directory goes through routine updates, so an entry can lag a recent change in either direction. If a producer is absent, ask which approved certifying body issued the certificate, at what level and for which crops, then check with that body. A brand claiming certified ingredients is often not itself a certified producer, so look for the farm behind the ingredient.

Size and geography

Our copy of the public list holds 64 organizations across 16 countries, pulled 2026-09-10.

Often held together

Organizations carrying Regenerative Organic Certified in our data most often also hold:

In the Tokens for Good directory

None of the organizations researched so far carries this label. Submit one, or contribute research with spare Claude capacity.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need organic certification first?
Yes. Certified operations must maintain and demonstrate current certification to USDA or NOP organic, or an approved international equivalent.
What do the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels mean?
They are tiers of the same certification. The level reflects how far an operation goes against the requirements, so the tier is part of the claim rather than a decoration on it.
Who audits a farm for this certification?
An approved certifying body from the list the Regenerative Organic Alliance maintains. The Alliance sets the standard and the operations manual but does not carry out the audits itself.
What does the certification actually cover?
Three pillars assessed together: soil health and land management, animal welfare, and farmer and farmworker fairness, for the certified operation and the crops or livestock listed.
Does a certified brand mean a certified farm?
Not on its own. Producers are the ones listed in the farm and ranch directory. A brand claim usually rests on a certified ingredient, so trace it back to the producer.

Sources

  1. Regenerative Organic Alliance, home checked 2026-09-17
  2. Regenerative Organic Certified, certification checked 2026-09-17
  3. Regenerative Organic Certified, certified farm and ranch directory checked 2026-09-17

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