What Does It Mean When Food Crops Are Certified as Sustainably Grown?

J. Knox in San Francisco asks, "What does it mean when products are SCS Sustainably Grown certified?"

There’s no federal law that defines common green agriculture terms like sustainable, carbon neutral, and regenerative. What’s more, those claims don’t always mean a product is certified organic or pesticide-free. Here’s what you need to know about these common eco-labels and what SCS Sustainably Grown in particular does and doesn’t cover.

Regenerative agriculture

The term regenerative agriculture is commonly used to capture farming methods that can be traced back to traditional BIPOC practices. Those practices include enhancing and improving soil health, optimizing resource management, and improving water quality and availability—all of which have the added co-benefit of taking action on climate by reducing carbon emissions.

There isn’t an official consensus on what exactly regenerative agriculture means. A 2020 study of 279 published research articles showed that people described regenerative agriculture differently. Even regenerative agriculture certifications have very different requirements. But in general, they are an important basis for understanding what "SCS Sustainably Grown" refers to.

“Many of the regenerative certifications in the FoodPrint Food Label Produce Guide essentially use the USDA organic standards as a baseline, then build additional requirements for soil health, crop rotation, and more,” Ryan Nebeker, a research and policy analyst for FoodPrint told me. The SCS Sustainably Grown certification doesn’t mandate some regenerative soil management fundamentals (like keeping living roots in the soil). But they are required for products that are trying to earn SCS Sustainably Grown’s Regenerative Trailblazer recognition, according to Nebeker.

“We consider SCS Sustainably Grown to be a regenerative farming program, based on the wide range of required indicators that assure a healthy soil ecosystem and increased soil carbon sequestration,” Kevin Warner, the director of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) certifications and strategy at SCS Global, told me. “For certified growers that want to make a regenerative farming claim, they need to meet the additional requirements of our Regenerative Farming Trailblazer recognition (of the SCS Sustainably Grown standard).”

Fertilizers and pesticides

I learned from Nebeker that SCS Sustainably Grown doesn’t explicitly ban synthetic fertilizers. That is a baseline for many other certifications in the FoodPrint Food Label Produce Guide. And it’s a bit of a mixed story when it comes to pesticides.

“SCS Sustainably Grown’s prohibited pesticide list appears to focus on some of the most dangerous or ecologically harmful pesticides, which is good,” Nebeker continued. “But it isn’t a complete ban and seems to miss some of the most-used pesticides in agriculture, particularly glyphosate.” (Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup.)

Soil testing, labor, and supply chain

The certification does a good job testing soil health outcomes and mandating improvement, especially with soil carbon, which helps legitimize carbon sequestration claims, Nebeker explained. As for labor issues, Nebeker clarified that SCS Sustainably Grown includes some labor standards that other regenerative certifications sometimes miss.

The certification is limited when it comes to evaluating supply chains. “It is a farm-level audit and does not cover mid-supply-chain manufacturing beyond traceability/chain of custody topics,” Warner said.

Process vs. outcome-based certifications

SCS Sustainably Grown is more of a hybrid between process-based standards and outcome-based standards, Nebeker said. Process-based standards (like USDA Organic, Regenerative Organic Certified, and a few others) stipulate how crops or animals are raised. Outcome-based standards mostly focus on results for biodiversity and soil carbon. For example, the Savory Institute’s Land to Market Verified Regenerative certification works this way. They’re fairly agnostic to what producers do with their land as long as they can prove they’ve improved some markers for biodiversity and soil health.

Both of these approaches have advantages and drawbacks. Process standards do a great job of ensuring certain problematic products or practices are not used. They come in handy for consumers who care about things like chemical use. But outcome testing and verification are also important to demonstrate the label does something for environmental protection.

Site visits

I’ve done my fair share of deep dives into sustainability certifications. The most important thing to look for in any certification is if the certifier conducts unannounced site visits. SCS Sustainably Grown certification does not include unannounced farm visits.

Stronger regenerative produce certifications

FoodPrint’s go-to picks for regenerative certifications are AGW’s Certified Regenerative and Regenerative Organic Certified Gold. “Both have more holistic and stringent standards that go beyond soil health and include verification and outcome testing for many of the environmental claims,” Nebeker said.

What you can do

One of the best ways to support regenerative farms is to put a stop to more destructive industrial farming practices. There’s plenty the USDA and other agencies could do to limit the impact of industrial agriculture on climate, soil, water, and animal welfare, such as a moratorium on the construction of new concentrated animal feeding operations (a.k.a. factory farms).