How the regenerative organic certification is raising the bar for agricultural practices (interview with elizabeth whitlow of the regenerative organic alliance)
Elizabeth Whitlow is the Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance (@regenerativeorganic), which is a nonprofit that is leading the Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC), a holistic, high-bar certification that encompasses soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness.
In this podcast episode, Elizabeth sheds light on how we can tell regenerative agriculture apart to support it with our purchases through the Regenerative Organic Certification that is rolling out later this year in 2020, and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Elizabeth and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by Power to Change by Luna Bec
“There’s more life in one teaspoon of soil than humans on the planet. We’ve identified only 15%-20% of those life forms. We need time to do this research, and we need to do it fast.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On what the federal rule of ‘organic’ entails and does not entail:
“There's no way that the federal rule on organic can solve all of our problems—it is not the panacea.
It is not going to address everything that every consumer cares about. But [certified ‘organic’] can give assurance that it is a crop that is grown using chemicals that are not toxic, that there's full traceability, and that there is integrity to that food.
However, there are problems with the federal rule and with a looser interpretations of certain sections of the rule. Some of those in particular have been getting a lot of media attention lately.
For example, the federal rule is allowing hydroponics, so they're allowing crops that do not come from the soil to be grown and sold as organic.
Many, many people feel like organic farming should only be crops that come from the soil. We agree, and we don't think there is a place for hydroponics in the organic world because it doesn't help to really improve or build healthy soil.
That is really at the heart of the organic law, and it is certainly at the heart of our standard with the Regenerative Organic Certification standard.”
On our limited knowledge of the soil ecology:
“There's so much learning happening right now about what we need to do to build healthy soil.
A lot of it comes from this other folks who are working in the regenerative circles and they aren't necessarily ascribed into the organic and that it has to be done organically, but I think there's a huge recognition that using chemicals is not the best path forward because it kills the microbial life in the soil.
But the biggest thing they're doing, the most positive, I'd say is from Gabe Brown and the folks at Kiss the Ground is this. Regenerative practices where you always have to leave the ground covered. You minimize tillage and you plant a diversity of crops and minimal disturbance to the soil, and all these things will help recover the health and the kind of teaming microbial masses that live beneath the soil.
There's more life in one teaspoon of soil than humans on the planet. By far.
And we're just discovering—we've identified only around 15% - 20% of those life forms. So the other 80% - 85%, we don't even know what they are or what function they play in the soil ecology.
We need time to do this research, and we need to do it fast and learn about what's going on in the soil so that we can continue to advocate for policies that support building healthy soil.
This is happening a lot around the country and around the world.
I'm no soil scientist; I qualify as a soil geek. But I think we cannot understand it well enough and figure out how to convey this to everybody so everybody knows that healthy food comes from healthy soil.”
Final words of wisdom:
“Let's work together. We need to help solve (and not intensify) problems. It's not enough to grow our food and fibers chemical-free, we want to grow topsoil, draw down carbon, and we want to regenerate the earth so we have a healthy future for everybody.”
