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Certified Regenerative is a GO

Certified Regenerative is go!

Last month we announced the first farm in the world to be Certified Regenerative by AGW – and it’s located here in the UK! This an exciting and timely development, offering a whole-farm, plan-based programme that will measure real change on farm to benefit soil, water, air, biodiversity, infrastructure, animal welfare and social responsibility.

 

Four years of work

This isn’t something that we’ve hastily pulled off the shelf to jump on the ‘regenerative bandwagon’. Certified Regenerative by AGW is the culmination of more than FOUR years of work across four continents to develop effective, appropriate and workable standards for all manner of farm operations – plus the necessary auditing and certification procedures to back them up. It has been a labour of love, that’s for sure!

As a member of the UK team, I can also say we’re all particularly pleased that the first farm in the world to be certified by A Greener World for their regenerative stewardship is in Devon! Naomi Oakley and Mark Owen of Challacombe Farm have been actively involved in the Certified Regenerative by AGW pilot programme for the last 18 months, together with almost 100 farmers across four continents, helping us to properly ‘road test’ the standards and hone our procedures. Congratulations to Naomi and Mark – they’re both as excited about it as we are.

 

A Privilege

It’s been a privilege to work with all the farmers and the AGW Global team on this important project, and the UK team is champing at the bit to open the programme up to new applicants later in the summer. With lots of significant enquiries already in the pipeline, we’re excited about the scale of impact this could have on UK agriculture – and beyond.

Certified Regenerative by AGW was specifically designed to be inclusive and accessible to farms and holdings of all sizes and shapes and backgrounds. This isn’t about establishing yet another ‘elite club’ for a handful of farms producing artisan food for a well-off minority. This is about meeting individual farmers where they are and helping them on a journey towards building healthy, biologically diverse soils that produce healthy food while enhancing the environment and the farmer’s livelihood. It’s about creating real change at scale and a future for everyone.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

We’re getting a lot of questions about Certified Regenerative by AGW, so we’ve produced an FAQ list. But a common question is where Certified Regenerative ‘fits’, particularly in the context of established organic standards and certification in the UK. The reality is that Certified Regenerative by AGW complements — and arguably enhances — any existing organic certification. While people assume organic standards are inherently ‘regenerative’, there are some major differences. Organic standards do not require benchmarking of things like soil health, water or air quality, or wildlife species/habitats, social fairness, for example, nor any measurement over time to ascertain improvements (or otherwise).

 

Next steps

Our family of no-nonsense farm certifications give farmers the tools to talk with pride about their farms to customers – whether consumers, buyers or retailers – and the confidence of being backed up by an independent, credible and trusted farm certifier that guarantees the highest farming standards – whether it’s high animal welfare, non-GMO, grassfed, and now regenerative. We look forward to working with you and supporting your businesses. And maybe see you at Groundswell!

 

Wayne Copp
Executive Director Europe

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