What "regenerative" means on Chivle, and how we check farms

Short answer: regenerative farming means growing food in ways that build soil health instead of using it up: disturbing the soil less, keeping it covered and growing for more of the year, raising more kinds of plants and animals, and moving livestock across pasture. There is no legal definition, so every farm on Chivle shows how far its practices have been checked.

Why there's no single definition

"USDA Organic" is a federal standard with a rulebook and inspections. "Regenerative" isn't. It describes an approach, and brands use it for everything from a full farm redesign to a single cover crop. That's the problem we're trying to solve for buyers: the word alone doesn't tell you much.

The closest thing to common ground is the set of four soil health principles published by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS):

1. Minimize disturbance. Till less, use fewer chemical inputs, and rotate grazing animals.
2. Maximize soil cover. Keep the ground covered with plants or residue all year.
3. Maximize biodiversity. Grow many kinds of plants through rotations and cover crop mixes, and integrate livestock.
4. Maximize continuous living roots. Keep something growing for as much of the year as possible.

Regenerative farmers often add a fifth: integrate animals, because grazing managed well feeds soil life.

The practices we ask every farm about

When a farm applies to sell on Chivle, it tells us which of these it uses:

• No-till or minimal tillage
• Cover cropping
• Rotational or managed grazing
• No synthetic fertilizers or pesticides
• Certified organic, or currently transitioning

A farm has to use at least one to apply. A farm that uses none of them, and farms entirely conventionally, isn't a fit for Chivle today. Most farms we talk to use several, and the mix depends on what they grow: a pasture-raised beef farm and a vegetable farm build soil in different ways.

Three levels of checking

Every grower page and product card on Chivle shows one of three levels. The label tells you how far the farm's claim has been checked, so it never reads as more than it is.

Right now, every farm talks with our founder before it can list anything, and that call covers how the farm grows. So farms selling today start at Chivle-reviewed or higher.

What the review covers

On the call, we go through the practices the farm selected on its application:

• Which practices it uses, on which fields or pastures, and for how long
• What it puts on its crops and soil, and what it doesn't
• For livestock: how animals are moved, and what they eat beyond pasture
• Anything it's transitioning toward, such as organic certification

We record the date of the review. If a farm's practices change, it can ask us to review them again.

How we check organic certification

A farm that says it's certified organic gives us its certificate number. We check it against the USDA's Organic Integrity Database, the public list of every certified operation. The Certified Organic label appears only after that check passes.

What we don't claim

Being specific about the limits matters as much as the labels:

• We don't visit every farm or test soil. The review is a conversation, not an audit.
• Chivle-reviewed isn't a certification. It means a person at Chivle went through the farm's practices with the farmer. It doesn't mean the farm meets an outside standard.
• Organic is the only certification we check automatically today. If a farm holds another one, like Certified Naturally Grown or Regenerative Organic Certified, it can tell buyers on its page, but our label won't show it yet.

Certifications, compared

Certification is one way to show practices, not the only one. Many excellent small farms aren't certified because of the cost and paperwork.

Why we built it this way

A single "regenerative" badge on every farm would be easier to build and easier to market. It would also be untrue for some farms, and it would teach buyers to ignore the word. Showing the level on every page lets a farm that's two years into no-till stand next to a certified farm without either one being misrepresented.

If you farm this way, see how selling on Chivle works. If you're looking for farms near you, start with Michigan's regenerative farms. Michigan is where Chivle is launching first.