Regenerative Agriculture and the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) program

The below-illustrated certification is held by three wineries on the planet: Tablas Creek , Troon Vineyards and Solminer Wine Company. I discuss the long arc to the underlying farming system -- and provide a high-level view of the program -- in this post.

Conventional Agriculture

Conventional agriculture has been instrumental in feeding a growing human population; much more so with the mechanization and synthetic fertilizer advances of the last century. But, as shown in the chart below, this approach had some deleterious effects on the environment and fueled the search for alternatives that began early in the 20th century. The results of these searches are combined in the chart below under the rubric "Organo-Regenerative Farming Practices."

Organic Agriculture

The first movement away from conventional agriculture began in the 1920s in reaction to ecological and soil-related issues (Doring, et al.*):

... acidification of soils, loss of soil structure, soil fatigue, decrease of seed and food quality, and increases in plant and animal diseases were attributed to the chemical-technical intensification of agriculture. In addition, yield levels in Germany decreased drastically in the 1920s in comparison to the years before World War I, even though the use of mineral fertilizers increased.

This early movement toward organic farming focused on improved soil fertility and sustainability while reducing mineral-fertilizer use and producing high-quality crops. 

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization defines organic farming as (Doring, et al.*):

... a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs ... This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfill any specific function within the system.

The Rodale Institute defines organic agriculture as:

... a production system that regenerates the health of soils, ecosystems and people wherein, in opposition to the conventional approach, the farmer depends on natural processes, biodiversity and local-condition cycles to provide plant nutrition and fight pests and weeds. 

But the organization does not see the farmer as only being involved with avoidance and substitution tactics; they are also engaged in proactive steps -- crop rotation, composted matter, green manure crops -- to improve soil health.

The table below captures the practices encompassed within organic agriculture.

Table 1. Organic Management Practices

Discipline	Practice	Action	Benefits
Soil Management	Cover crops	Planted between rows	Protects soil from erosion  Add or scavenge nutrients, as desired Alleviate compaction Improve soil structure Helps to smother weeds and control pests and diseases Attract beneficial arthropods Enhance water-holding capacity of the soil Increase biodiversity
	Crop rotation	Different crops differentially on the same plot of land	Improve soil health Optimize nutrients in the soil Combat pest and weed pressures
	Compost	Aerobic combination of traditional waste applied to soil	Reduces weeds and plant disease organisms Provides extra water-holding capacity Promotes the slow release of nitrogen Enhances the plant’s ability to fight off disease
	Organic No-Till	Small-Scale Farmers: hoes and rakes Large Farmers: Roller-Crimper	- Cover crops cut and left on the ground, forms thick mulch that suffocates weeds
Pest Management	Healthy soils	Prevention	Create strong plants that are resistant to pest pressure Encourage populations of natural predators and beneficial insects
	Crop selection	Select pest-resistant varieties of crops
	Pheremones	Disturb pest-mating cycles
	Trapping
	Targeted sprays	Last resort Organic-approved pesticides

Biodynamic Farming

Biodynamic farming, founded in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner, was one of the first movements towards organic agriculture. It is (Doring, et al.) "... a holistic agricultural system based on respect for the spiritual dimension of the living and inorganic environment." 

Biodynamic agriculture is, for the most part, the organic agricultural system with extensions supporting application of specific biodynamic preparations -- said to stimulate soil nutrient cycling, promote crop photosynthetic activity, and transform compost -- along with adherence to the lunar calendar for certain agricultural activities. It should, ideally, be practiced on mixed farms -- including crops and livestock -- to meet Steiner's requirement of the farm as an organism.

Table 2. Main ingredients of the biodynamic preparations 500 to 507 (Source: Doring, et al.)

Preparation #	Designation	Main Ingredient	Use
500	Horn manure	Cow manure	Field spray
501	Horn silica	Finely ground quartz silica	Field spray
502	Yarrow	Yarrow blossoms	Compost
503	Chamomile	Chamomile blossoms	Compost
504	Stinging nettle	Stinging nettle shoots and leaves	Compost
505	Oak bark	Oak bark	Compost
506	Dandelion	Dandelion flowers	Compost
507	Valerian	Valerian flower extract	Compost

Healthy soils and crops are the foundation of biodynamic viticulture. According to adherents, if the microbiome of the soil is not healthy, the vine cannot get what it needs from the soil and can only survive with direct application of nitrogen. This "mainlining of nitrogen" prevents the vine from forming a normal healthy root system. Biodynamic viticulture seeks to "return the microbiome to a healthy balance so that the grapevine can return to its natural process of extracting what it needs from the soil." This makes for a healthier, stronger vine and more flavorful fruit and wine.

In viticulture, organic and biodynamic farming approaches were initially applied in the late-1960s with efforts focused on maintaining crop yields while improving soil fertility and reducing the use of mineral fertilizers. Today 316,000 ha of grapes are grown organically (4.55% of the global grape-growing area), with Europe (266,000 ha) being responsible for the lion's share. Spain, Italy, and France have the largest organic grape-growing areas. Worldwide, 11,200 ha of land are farmed, or are in transition to being farmed, under biodynamic principles.

Certification is available under both the organic and biodynamic farming regimes. There are a number of sustainability certifications but the challenge, according to Tablas Creek's Jason Haas, "is that the word 'sustainable' is not protected and people can claim it without doing much. These standards also have different standards and requirements and often do not set a particularly high bar." Ana Monforte Weitjers, whose business is built around sustainable vineyards, sees the concept as having become "almost a marketing gimmick."

Regenerative Agriculture

Regeneration International defines Regenerative Agriculture as

... a holistic land management practice that leverages the power of photosynthesis in plants to close the carbon cycle and build soil health, crop resilience, and nutrient density.

According to the organization, soil health is improved through practices that increase soil organic matter. These practices:

• Contribute to generating/building soils and soil fertility and health
• Increase water percolation, water retention, and clean and safe water runoff
• Increase biodiversity and ecosystem health and resiliency
• Invert the carbon emissions of our current agriculture to one of remarkably significant carbon sequestration thereby cleansing the atmosphere of legacy levels of carbon dioxide.

Terra Genesis International sees Regenerative Agriculture as a set of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services. It aims to "capture carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation ... at the same time it offers increased yields, resilience to climate instability, and higher health and vitality for farming and ranching communities."

In contrast to the foregoing, the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative relies on "outcomes-based criteria," rather than prescriptive practices, to bound its system. The outcomes that it seeks are Healthy Soils, Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy Communities, and a Healthy Climate.

The practices that comprise Regenerative Agriculture are drawn from a number of parallel disciplines, as shown in the figure below.

Regenerative Organic Certified

The Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) is a "revolutionary" new certification for food, fiber, and personal care ingredients that has been developed under the auspices of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. Using the USDA Organic certification as a jumping-off point, ROC incorporates elements of Biodynamics and Permaculture into its Land Management corpus and extends beyond that sphere to cover Animal Welfare and Farmer and Worker Fairness. The organizing framework of the program was illustrated in the initial chart in the post.

The program completed its pilot phase in early 2020 (Tablas Creek participated in the pilot). The objectives of the pilot were to (ROA):

1. Develop a greater understanding of how standards can be implemented at the farm and ranch level
2. Provide information that would help to inform the creation of training materials, audit tools, guidance documents, etc.

The program integrates a set of existing standards with ROA protocols to arrive at its finished product. It should be noted that the framework shown at the top of the post is at the highest-possible level of classification; the actual practices extend a number of levels down in terms of detail and specificity. The chart below shows the key differences between the program's three levels.

The chart below shows the mix of the standards that are incorporated into the program as well as a potential timeline for an entity starting the process from ground zero.

Example roadmap
(Source: organicproducenetwork.com)

In commenting on the ROC, Jason Haas noted the following:

An important difference between ROC and the other initiatives is that it is outcomes- rather than process-based. In addition, there are things that ROC addresses that the other soil-based protocols like organic and biodynamic don't because they are focused narrowly.\; things such as resource-use reduction, animal welfare, and farmworker equity. The goal of ROC is to put in place a comprehensive gold standard for farming, from impacts to soils, resources, farm animals, and working communities.

***********************************************************************************************************

With this background in place, I will next turn to Tablas Creek's experiences adopting/adapting to the standard.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme