Jan 11, 2022
CCOF now offering Regenerative Organic certification for farms
California Certified Organic Farmers, aka CCOF, announced January 10 that it is now offering the Regenerative Organic Certified program in partnership with the Regenerative Organic Alliance, or ROA.
Regenerative Organic Certified is a certification for food, textiles, and personal care ingredients overseen by the nonprofit ROA. To be certified regenerative organic, a product must first be certified organic to National Organic Program, but then also meet additional standards for regenerative agriculture. “The ROC program encompasses three pillars – Soil Health, Animal Welfare, and Social Fairness – and includes three levels – bronze, silver and gold,” CCOF wrote online.
“CCOF is offering the ROC program to farms and ranches located in the United States that have a USDA organic certification with CCOF,” according to the CCOF website. “This program is offered to handlers at the Gold level only. Any new CCOF applicants can apply for organic and ROC certifications concurrently.”
ROA first went public with the certification scheme in September 2020 after a trial phase. The nonprofit established its standards in 2018, and a group of businesses and farms joined a pilot program in 2019.
In addition to the farms and vineyards certified in the pilot program, numerous others have since earned the ROC certification, including Fetzer Vineyards and Troon Vineyard.
More information about ROC certification and the application process is available on the CCOF website.
Above photo courtesy of Troon Vineyard.
