Please join us for our next stakeholder session on Minimum Regenerative Standards for retail food claims. This session will focus on regenerative hog and poultry production. Guest panelists are Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin of Tree Range Farms, Heidi Diestel of Diestel Turkey, and Greg Gunthorp of Gunthrop Family Farms. Pics and bios below.

As our work groups sessions unfold, we now turn to how regenerative hog and poultry production is managed from start to finish. It's imperative to know feed is grown, how pastures, paddocks and coops are maintained, and how the animals' life cycles are supported. Vaccinations, antibiotics and other pharmaceutical use will be examined. Animal welfare and environmental outcomes are key.

This session on regenerative hog and poultry production builds on previous conversations about Synthetics, Soil Health and Fertility and Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops, Tillage, and Ruminant Livestock by asking what are the best practices - and worst practices - when managing pigs and chickens in a regenerative system. Our panelists are practitioners with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales of shortcuts and unpredicted outcomes.

To make sure everyone can follow along, here is a general outline of the discussion:

First, we will describe how both hogs and poultry managed in a regenerative system can benefit ecology, animals, and communities.

Second, we will ask where are the weak spots in current regenerative production practices, and what can we do to strengthen them? We will focus first on feed sources, and then on confinement practices and animal welfare.

Third, of the many hog and poultry facilities that claim regenerative outcomes, how much of this is defensible and how much is marketing puffery? What are the deal-breakers for you? Are environmental outcomes alone a sufficient measure?

Fourth, a lighting round of “thumbs up or thumbs down on” on a list of inputs and practices.

Fifth, access to processing and access to retail and institutional markets is a key tenet of regenerative agriculture. Why are both so hard to achieve, and what to do about it?

SideBar: What’s up with eggs? With special guest Steve LaQua of Mid-States Specialty Eggs.

Lastly, what is our right relationship with livestock animals, the planet, and with each other?

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

Please join us for our next stakeholder session on Minimum Regenerative Standards for retail food claims. This session will focus on ruminant livestock production. Guest panelists include Carrie Richards of Richards Regenerative, Matt Maier of Thousand Hills, Dawn Sherman of the Tanka Fund, and Lucille Contreras of Texas Tribal Buffalo Project.

As our work groups sessions unfold, we now turn to how ruminant livestock in managed from birth to slaughter. It’s imperative to know feed is grown, how grasslands are managed, and how grazing is accomplished. Hormones, vaccinations, antibiotics and other pharmaceutical use will be examined. Animal welfare and environmental outcomes are key. And, we can talk livestock without examining how Big Meat is curtailing access to retail and institutional markets and promoting imported product.

This session on regenerative livestock production builds on previous conversations about Synthetics, Soil Health and Fertility and Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops and Tillage Practices by asking what are the best practices – and worst practices – when managing ruminant livestock production in a regenerative system, especially within the constraints of a tightly controlled market. Our panelists are practitioners with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales of shortcuts and unpredicted outcomes.

In this session we are addressing the complex issue of RUMINANT LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION. To make it easier for everyone to follow the conversation, we are breaking it up into distinct parts. At the end, we will try to put those parts all together.

First, to establish a baseline we will describe the historic range of buffalo and their essential role in North American ecology: grass to protein; urine, manure and hoofs on the soil; instinctive movement to fresh pastures.

Second, how can we replicate parts of this system? We will discuss appropriate ways to raise cattle, goats, and sheep on large and small operations to achieve the same ecosystem benefits of wild herds.

Third, when done right, can we avoid the ecological challenges of industrial livestock production such as deforestation, GMO grain production, low animal welfare, the use of antibiotics and hormones, and contaminated manure?

Next, what about the workarounds and shortcuts we see in many industrial ruminant production methods? How do we address areas of tension like GMO and monoculture grain finishing, early weaning, sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics, vaccinations, and confinement feeding? Are they deal-breakers?

Finally, what is our right relationship with livestock animals, the planet, and with each other? We will address the human aspects of ruminant livestock farming such as economic and food security, community culture and vitality, local slaughter and processing, government regulations, access to wider markets.

Note on Regenerative Minimum Standards

In drafting a guide for retailer buyers to use when reviewing retail food product packaging that displays regenerative claims, it is important to provide a clear decision tree based on what inputs and practices are reported by the brand.

Our expert panelists will try to answer these questions based on their hard-won experience — and pose new questions as well. We invite you to attend and participate in this session. The session begins with about 45 minutes of wide ranging prompts discussed by the panelists and moderator.

You will then be able to ask your own questions through a moderated Q&A function. Finally, we will open up the call for public comments on the topic.

You can also submit written comments or questions any time via the Reply section on the main regenerative minimum standard program page.

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

Please join us for our next stakeholder session on Minimum Regenerative Standards for retail food claims. This session will focus on tillage and cultivation practices. Guest panelists are Dr. Kris Nichols, W.B Brown, and Dr. Anna Jones-Crabtree (see bios below).

As our work groups sessions unfold, we now turn to how soil is treated and conditioned. It’s imperative to know how soil disturbance is applied in the overall system for weed control, reversing compaction, increasing water infiltration, and erosion control, and how organic matter is incorporated back into the soil for conversion into plant nutrition.

This session on Tillage Practices builds on previous conversations about Soil Health and Fertility and Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops by asking what are the best practices – and worst practices – when opening up a field. Our panelists are practitioners with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales.

Today we are addressing the complex issue of Tillage Practices. To make it easier for everyone to follow the conversation, we are breaking it up into four distinct parts. At the end, we will try to put those parts all together.

First, we will consider food companies that claim to be promoting regenerative No-Till supply chains for their products, but whose methods include bioengineered seeds, synthetic nitrogen, synthetic pesticides, and monoculture planting.

Second, we will contrast conventional No-Till with look at what it takes to use organic No-Till successfully.

Third, we will discuss appropriate types of tilling within a regenerative system at different scales and how the overall outcomes can be climate positive and environmentally beneficial.

Next, we will talk about the role of cultivation practices as distinct from tillage.

Finally, we will address food, community, farm economics, and the future of regenerative systems.

Some light prep reading:

https://civileats.com/2025/05/08/why-most-no-till-agriculture-is-not-actually-regenerative/

Note on Regenerative Minimum Standards

In drafting a guide for retailer buyers to use when reviewing retail food product packaging that displays regenerative claims, it is important to provide a clear decision tree based on what inputs and practices are reported by the brand.

Our expert panelists will try to answer these questions based on their hard-won experience — and pose new questions as well. We invite you to attend and participate in this session. The session begins with about 45 minutes of wide ranging prompts discussed by the panelists and moderator.

You will then be able to ask your own questions through a moderated Q&A function. Finally, we will open up the call for public comments on the topic.

You can also submit written comments or questions any time via the Reply section on the main regenerative minimum standard program page.

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

Please join us for our next stakeholder session on Minimum Regenerative Standards for retail food claims. This session will focus on Compost, Manure and Cover Crops. Panelists with bios are below.

As our work groups sessions unfold, we now turn to sources of fertility such as compost, manure, cover crops and green manure. It’s imperative to know where these materials come from, how they are grown, and how they are incorporated into the cropping system. Just because it’s organic matter does not mean it qualifies as a regenerative input.

This session on Compost, Manure and Cover Crops builds on previous conversations by asking, what are best practices for using off-farm manure, challenges with composts, and the important role of cover crops and inter-cropping. Our panelists are practitioners of best practices with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales. Topics for this session:

• Manure from conventional livestock operations vs hoofs on the ground.
• Cattle, hog and poultry manure – challenges and opportunities
• Municipal sources of organic matter – the good and bad
• Using cover crops as soil armor
• Herbicide use with cover crops
• Using green manure as a nutrient source
• Challenges of scaling compost operations using off-farm sources
• Small scale agriculture approaches to organic matter
• Windrows and tilling organic matter into soil – best practices
• Pharma, metals, and pesticide residues in manure and compost
• Is there a role for synthetic biology in managing soil nutrition

In drafting a guide for retailer buyers to use when reviewing retail food product packaging that displays regenerative claims, it is important to provide a clear decision tree based on what inputs and practices are reported by the brand.

Our expert panelists will try to answer these questions based on their hard-won experience — and pose new questions as well. We invite you to attend this session on Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops. The session begins with about 45 minutes of wide ranging prompts discussed by the panelists and moderator.

You will then be able to ask your own questions through a moderated Q&A function. Finally, we will open up the call for public comments on the topic.

You can also submit written comments or questions any time via the Reply section on the main regenerative minimum standard program page.

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

In our session on synthetic inputs, it was clear that the use of synthetic nitrogen and pesticides was not an allowable practice in regenerative systems. Both panelists and attendees concluded a properly designed system did not need to rely on these materials, and in fact would be damaged by their use.

This session on soil health builds on this approach by asking, where does fertility in a regenerative system come from? What materials can be used to increase fertility and soil function? How can a farm verify that its practices have been successful? What are the best practices for increasing and maintaining fertility? What is the range of uses on different farms? Is there such a thing as “transitional regenerative” when conventional practices have been terminated but soil health improvement is only a promise?

Summary: This meeting focused on developing consensus standards for regenerative agriculture claims to help shoppers trust regenerative labels while preventing misleading use of the term by brands that don’t meet minimum standards. The panel of experts, including Nicole Masters, Noah Wentz, and Zach Heyman, discussed soil health and fertility practices, with participants sharing experiences about transitioning from conventional to regenerative farming methods. The group explored challenges around transitioning farm practices, the importance of context-specific approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, and the complexity of measuring soil health outcomes. Key topics included the role of synthetic inputs during transitions, the value of systems thinking over reductionist approaches, and the need for meaningful verification methods that go beyond cherry-picked metrics. The discussion highlighted that regenerative agriculture should be viewed as a continuous process rather than a static certification, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a full toolkit of farming practices while focusing on ecosystem outcomes and farmer intent.

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

IFOAM North America and key food retailers are hosting a series of conversations on regenerative agriculture topics to work towards an industry consensus on minimum regenerative standards. The primary focus is to ensure that grocery shoppers can confidently choose products bearing a regenerative claim without being misled or confused. We seek to enable gatekeeper retailers to evaluate potentially substandard claims so only bona fide regenerative products are for sale on their shelves.

This first call will dig into the role of synthetic fertilizers and pesticide inputs. This panel discussion tackles the “pragmatic vs. purist” debate head-on, aiming to determine if a minimum threshold for synthetic use can coexist with fully realized regenerative principles. Our three panelists all have deep hands-on experience grappling with these issues.

By navigating the tension between soil biology and scalable production, we will work toward a consensus on the minimum baseline requirements needed to provide reliable clarity for producers, global supply chains, retailers, and the everyday shopper.

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.