Marketing regenerative: How three ROC brands sell agriculture
As regenerative agriculture gains purchase across the natural and organic products marketplace, brands within the Regenerative Organic Certified umbrella are engaging with especially vigorous marketing.
The national organic program addresses a welter of environmental issues, from soil health to waterway vitality and clean air. But soon after its launch in 1994, consumers latched onto just one of its many provisions—a ban on the use of dangerous pesticides and herbicides. Despite the standard’s many rules for bringing about sustainable agricultural stewardship, consumers fixed on the program’s main good-for-me standard. And their enthusiasm for organic’s health advantages has led to 30 years of flourishing for the unique standard.
Like organic, regenerative agriculture also offers farmers paths toward healing soil and planet through farming. But to date it lacks a powerful selling point for human health, beyond how it might mitigate effects of climate change. Some stakeholders are exploring links between regenerative farming and nutrient density, and early data suggest connections between the two. But the potential scope of that health benefit remains unclear.
As a result, savvy marketing and education are vital. As regenerative doesn’t lend itself to simple slogans, all stakeholders, from farmers to brands to retailers, must figure out ways to tell the complex story in easy-to-digest ways for consumers.
At the same time, they must contend with a flood of greenwashing. Any company can use the word regenerative, even if the company has nothing to do with helping to bring about soil improvement and environmental vigor. Could an oil and gas company call its drilling regenerative? Absolutely.
The market today, however, supports a range of third-party-backed regenerative standards. And consumer interest is growing. According to Google Trends, the term “regenerative agriculture” is experiencing more searches today than ever before. And among sustainability certifications, from Fair Trade to B Corp and plenty of others, Certified Regenerative Organic (ROC) is leading in sales growth, according to The Food Institute.
Even as ROC—which is built on a foundation of organic—emerges as a leader among certifications, the nonprofit behind it, the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), is just now beginning to assemble a task force among its members to explore best practices for marketing, said ROA executive director Elizabeth Whitlow.
“We are creating a toolkit or blueprint for why all of the principles of ROC matter,” Whitlow said. “The big focus now will be addressing retailers and consumers. Early on, it was about farmers, and then it was about brands and getting them onboarded and engaged.”
While messaging surrounding regenerative agriculture remains nascent and rapidly evolving, some brands and leaders in the space serve as especially strong ambassadors for the movement. Their educational outreach and marketing is helping to shepherd new consumers into the regenerative fold, and to contribute toward more widespread understanding about what regenerative agriculture is all about.
“One good example I’m seeing is the work Vital Farms is doing telling their regenerative story,” said Kristine Root, chief marketing officer for the regenerative agriculture certification program Regenified. “Another one, and I never would have guessed it, is Maker’s Mark bourbon. It has made a major commitment to educating farmers they are buying grains from to transition to regenerative agriculture.”
Root advised regenerative brands to “take pieces from these complex regenerative narratives to build your stories. This is a huge opportunity for brands.
While the movement supports a number of certifications, some of the most prominent brand advocates for regenerative, for now, enjoy ROC status.
Lundberg Family Farms
Lundberg Family Farms began engaging extensively with regenerative agriculture messaging after it gained its first ROC award in the spring of 2023. The company aims to offer all of its rice that now is organic as ROC by 2027.
One centerpiece to Lundberg’s marketing and educational efforts is its “Ducking Good Rice” campaign, which showcases how the fourth-generation farm and brand leans into regenerative agriculture through waterfowl—including ducks.
Lundberg’s chief storyteller and fourth-generation farmer Brita Lundberg said ducks are key to Lundberg’s regenerative efforts—so vital, in fact, that for more than three decades Lundberg has rescued about 30,000 duck eggs a year from its rice fields. The company sends the eggs to a hatchery, which delivers the ducks into the world and sets them free.
Why do ducks matter to a rice farm?Their activity in the fields helps prepare them for planting, while also fertilizing the fields. Incorporating livestock into agriculture is one of the pillars of regenerative agriculture. In addition, promoting biodiversity in general figures into regenerative agriculture.
The massive, annual egg-rescuing effort on the part of Lundberg dwells at the heart of its current regenerative messaging. The company launched its “Ducking Good Rice” campaign on Earth Day 2023, with a full-page ad in the New York Times, billboards across the country and heavy social media engagement. Part of the campaign served as a puckish protest against Earth Day, the point being every day should be Earth Day. That campaign continues across 2024.