Why Brands Like The North Face, Vans and General Mills Are Embracing Regenerative Agriculture

In 1995, just a few years after purchasing his 629-acre farm in North Dakota, Gabe Brown lost 100% of his crop to a hail storm. The following years only brought more bad luck—hail storms and drought meant the farm went without significant crop income for four years straight. "Best thing that could've happened," Brown recounted in the 2020 Netflix documentary, Kiss the Ground. After that series of tough years, the bank was unwilling to lend more money for inputs, forcing Brown to rethink his practices. That began a years-long journey to understanding the tenets of regenerative agriculture. Alcohol Brands Are Ditching Glass for Paper to Cut Packaging-Related Emissions Less than three decades later, Brown's Ranch is thriving—drawing a profit that's roughly 33 times higher than the average industrial U.S. farm, according to the documentary. The practices that underpin Brown's success are the same ones that some researchers say could pull up to 100% of humanity's current annual CO2 emissions out of the air, if implemented across the world, making it a critical tool in fighting the climate crisis. They're also the practices that brands like The North Face, Vans, General Mills, Maker's Mark and Lundberg Family Farms are highlighting in marketing materials that aim to educate people on regenerative practices and pilot programs. What is regenerative agriculture? While definitions of regenerative agriculture vary widely, part of that is inherent to the philosophy that it's built on. Rather than prescribing no-till farming or cover crops to every farmer worldwide, the tenets of regenerative require a localized perspective—working to support the surrounding ecosystems and repair any damage that industrialized farming or ranching has inflicted. "What really defines whether an agricultural system is regenerative or not is the outcomes that it has," Ethan Soloviev, chief innovation officer at sustainability intelligence platform HowGood. "You're not just doing less harm, which is what most sustainable farming is. You're actually improving the health of the soil. You're increasing the biodiversity. You're cleaning the water, you're capturing carbon as opposed to just emitting less carbon. Deeply regenerative agriculture should have a net positive impact." For Brown's Ranch, that has meant trading traditional monoculture with heavy use of synthetic fertilizers for a system that includes 19 different plant species on the same plot of land. Brown doesn't till his land, and its grazed by his livestock during the winter—a practice that speeds up the process of soil regeneration. What does this mean for brands? VF Corporation, parent company to brands including The North Face, Vans, SmartWool, Dickies and Timberland, was introduced to regenerative agricultural practices after setting goals for greenhouse gas emission reduction. Working with the Science-Based Targets Initiative, the company found that over 70% of its climate impacts come from raw materials and the factory operations of its supply chain partners. "Over 60% of our materials come from agriculture," Jeannie Renné-Malone, vp of global sustainability at VF Corporation, told Adweek. That's everything from the cotton and wool for Dickies work pants and SmartWool socks to the rubber that makes up the soles of Vans and Timberland footwear. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vans Surf (@vanssurf) As more brands are required to measure and report on upstream emissions like those generated by agricultural partners, building carbon sequestration into the process will help companies reach emission reduction targets. "[Converting] land from monoculture practices to sustainable or regenerative agricultural practices, [creates] a carbon sequestration opportunity, storing more carbon in the ground than is emitted to the atmosphere," she explained. Through a partnership with regenerative design firm Terra Genesis, VF Corporation is funding a pilot program to support a cooperative of farmers transitioning to regenerative rubber cultivation. By planting fruit-bearing cover crops and incorporating beehives, farmers can diversify their income while improving the soil health and biodiversity of the land, Renné-Malone said. "It goes way beyond the rubber," she added. Verifying regenerative practices Gabe Brown has stepped aside from the day-to-day operations of his ranch, which his son now runs. But he still consults on regenerative agricultural practices through the firm he co-founded alongside three other farmers and ranchers, Understanding Ag. Last year, he also co-founded a certification company, Regenified, which assesses and certifies farms and ranches based on a five-tier system of regenerative practices. What Does Sustainability Mean, Anyway? Demystifying Advertising's Most Misleading Green Claims In March, Maker's Mark became the first distillery to achieve Regenified's certification after a lengthy on-farm and in-lab verification process. "We had no desire to start Regenified," Brown said. "But we were really tired of the greenwashing that was starting to take place. You had a lot of companies claiming that they're sourcing regenerative products and we're going, 'That's not regenerative.' Regenerative is truly healing the ecosystem and taking care of the people on the land."