As regenerative agriculture’s profile continues to rise rapidly, calls have been growing for a standardised definition of the system. And with more multinational corporations citing the term in marketing and on product labels, there are  warnings that ‘regen ag’ is being used as a form of greenwashing by agribusiness interests.

The topic of how regenerative agriculture should defined and presented to consumers featured this week in a special edition of BBC’s Farming Today. 

Perhaps surprisingly, all of the main contributors to the programme – Helen Browning, organic farmer and CEO of the Soil Association, regenerative farmer Michael Kavanagh, and professor Mario Caccamo, CEO of the crop science group NIAB – urged caution against rushing to agree a universal definition. 

Helen Browning pointed out that it took the organic sector, with a history going back over 100 years, a “very long time before we developed rigorous standards, such as getting an EU regulation in place”. While there were very important gains from this – “because you can be very clear to consumers about the benefits you are delivering” – Browning said that “this comes when you are reaching maturation”. She added: “I think getting to a really clear standard (for regenerative agriculture) might be an ambition in, say, 10 or 20 years time. But it feels too early to put that ring fence around it today. At the same time it’s really important that if brands are marketing products as regenerative that they say very clearly what they are doing on their farms.”

Browning suggested there might be other reasons not to rush for a definition: “One of the interesting things about regenerative is how much innovation it is spawning, how much new thinking is going on, and people trying lots of new ideas. So I would be worried about saying, let’s fossilise this now, and say this is the exact standard, because I think it might stop innovation.” She said that regenerative was “an important staging post for farmers who want to move in the right direction”, and she hoped some of those farmers would be encouraged to convert to organic, with its wider set of benefits.

Mario Caccamo commented: “In a way you can see the current vagueness as a strength. I agree very much with Helen about innovation. It’s important to try to be as inclusive as we can and making sure that we consider the different contexts of farming. We want to bring as many people onto this journey as possible, and having flexibility at the moment will help with that.

Regenerative farmer, Michael Kavanagh, said he doubted there would ever be one single definition of regenerative agriculture. “There are so many different styles of business in the UK, and to classify them all as one would be incredibly difficult. Unfortunately the regenerative bandwagon is being jumped on by everyone now. As far as I can see there will be some kind of tiered system of regeneratively produced food on our supermarket shelves.”

• To listen to the full programme (which included discussions on the wide use of glyphosate in regenerative agriculture and the question of whether gene edited plants have a place in system) follow the link – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001sth9