Making good on his father’s legacy to leave the earth better than he found it, Nature’s Path Founder Arran Stephens this week said he was proud to announce that his family’s Legend Organic Farm is the largest organic farm in the world to obtain Regenerative Organic Certification from the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA).
In 2017, the Stephens’ purchased the 5,000 acre farm near Duck Mountain, Saskatchewan, Canada. They enlisted 25-year organic agriculture industry expert Stuart McMillan to help design and implement pilot programs for regenerative organic practices.
Company vision
“At the heart of Nature’s Path is a vision to build a food movement that moves us towards healing the soil, land, water, air and all of us who rely on the health of the planet.” says Arran stephens. “In earning this certification, we celebrate our partnership with ROA as we continue to move towards this goal.”
Regenerative organic agriculture is a holistic system that goes above and beyond traditional organic certification requirements. The practice aims to sequester carbon through a combination of techniques including cover crops, soil maintenance, reduced tillage frequency, adoption of new weed control tools, increased plant diversity, and soil testing. Sequestering carbon into the soil could dramatically impact the course of climate change.
Same mindset
“Nature’s Path has long been an industry leader with the same mindset as the ROA in farming and producing food like the world depends on it, and we’re thrilled to be working with the company and their farmers on the journey to a regenerative organic future. As the largest farm in our Pilot Program, it’s even more exciting to see them earn ROC Silver for their oats—as a company, they’re proving that we can scale this movement. “says Elizabeth Whitlow, Executive Director of ROA.
“It can no longer be denied that our survival depends on shifting our current conventional agriculture model towards the types of organic practices that nurture and support nature’s holistic system health”, says Jyoti Stephens, Nature’s Path vice president of mission and strategy. “We want our products to be healthy for our customers, but also for our farmers, our world, and ultimately to our shared future.”
With the harvest from its own certified Regenerative Organic Farm, Nature’s Path will be launching a limited-edition oat product, the first of its kind in the world.
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