Some of the world’s leading brands are now looking at regenerative agriculture to tackle the climate crisis.
Land to MarketTM is the world’s first verified sourcing solution for regenerative farming, giving farmers, brands, retailers and consumers transparency and traceability when it comes to their food and practices.
Using science-based methods, the Land to Market initiative uses Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) on thousands of farms and ranches around the world to assess positive trends in ecological health and help the land regenerate.
Over 50 brands have now signed up to the Land to Market program, with the cause gathering momentum and attention throughout the food and fibre industries.
What is Land to Market?
The Land to Market program is an initiative of the Savory Institute to link conscious consumers with produce from land which is verified as regenerating in health. Land to Market is just as it sounds. It shows transparency of produce from its beginnings on the farm right through to the point of sale.
Consumers today are much more in tune with the needs of the environment, and with climate change the very real and present danger; the world is slowly waking up to the fact that something has to change.
For the first time in history, we can let consumers know a product’s impact on the environment, with empirical data to back it up, then highlight those products that are having a net-positive impact on the land. This will empower individuals to vote with their food dollar like never before and reward those producers for their positive ecological impact.
Businesses and companies who “greenwash” (give a false impression about how environmentally friendly they are) can no longer hide.
The Land to Market program gives complete transparency at every stage of the supply chain.
Ecological Outcome Verification
EOV is the approach developed by the Savory Institute to monitor and record the changing health of the land in a scientific way.
This regenerative approach to agriculture collects data from farms and measures how well they are doing from a regenerative standpoint.
EOV gives a holistic look at both leading and lagging indicators, putting farmers first and is outcome-based, rather than practice-based, which is what many certification schemes are based on.
Leading indicators are those markers of ecological health which change in real-time with management and provide fast feedback loops to help farmers understand the impact of their management decisions as they are made. They cover critical areas like plant litter incorporation, dung decomposition, soil capping, and maps the presence of desirable plant species.
Being outcomes-based means this is the actual impact on the land through the lens of health of the 4 ecosystem functions; energy flow, water cycle, mineral cycle and diversity. The indicators measured provide insight into the health of each ecosystem function and inform farmers how they can best shift to achieve greater regenerative health.
Years in the making, with input from scientists, agronomists, and land-stewards around the world, EOV gives the land a voice of its own, through empirical, tangible outcomes.
Farms with positively-trending data receive Ecological Outcome Verification, which validates the produce from their operations to consumers. Farms certified with EOV are eligible to sell their produce through market partners globally which opens up new supply chains and product opportunities.
These farmers will also be rewarded for the positive impact they have on ecosystem health.
Put simply, if a consumer can see that a product is sold with the Land to Market mark, then they know the farm it came from is regenerating ecological health as verified by EOV and the methods used are more than sustainable. Their buying choices can help in the fight against ecological degradation and climate change!
The Savory Institute
The Savory Institute was founded in 2009, with the aim of helping farmers around the world adopt, commit and build on holistic, sustainable practices.
It is a global movement with a mission to facilitate the large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands along with the livelihoods of their inhabitants.
The institute has a global network of hubs which promote and operate Land to Market in their regions.
These hubs collect ecological data and look at a whole spectrum of land health, including soil organic matter, carbon and water infiltration rates, the biodiversity of the soil, plants and wildlife. They provide training and support to farmers wishing to better understand Holistic Management and wanting to improve the ecological health of their land.
Land to Market now has over 50 partner brands globally, including household names like Timberland and UGG.
The end goal is to make the connection between brand and land direct and undeniable.
ATA and Land to Market
The Land to Market mark on product tells consumers that the product they’re purchasing comes from livestock, whether that be meat, dairy, wool or leather, on farms where they are making the land better as a result of how they’re being managed.
Ecological Outcome Verification is the science inside the Land to Market program, showing real-time, tangible results of how the land is regenerating.
EOV and Land to Market are critical to each other’s success. One does not exist effectively without the other.
In New Zealand, poor management of land causes serious erosion, loss of topsoil, drought, floods, degrading animal health, loss of biodiversity and economic harm.
Ata Regenerative has been at the forefront of regenerative agriculture practice in New Zealand NZ for almost two decades and in 2017 was appointed as the Savory Hub for NZ. It is the only certified Ecological Outcome Verification provider in the country.
We now have approximately 70,000 hectares of land under EOV in NZ that will be verified as regenerating and will be eligible for Land to Market, the first step in a long journey to change the agriculture industry in Aotearoa NZ.
If you would like to know more about Land to Market or how you could join us in the new farming revolution, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We can assist with your transition to farming practices that focus on the regeneration of soils, increased productivity and biological diversity, as well as economic and social well-being.
In short, the future of agriculture.
We hosted a free webinar on July 20 that explained Land to Market in a New Zealand context. Chris Kerston, Chief Commercial Officer of Land to Market from the Savory Institute in the US discussed Land to Market with Hugh Jellie, CEO of Ata Regenerative.
