The Future of Grocery: Regenerative Organic Certified®
The debate over shelf placement for Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC™) goods is officially over—and the revenue numbers tell the whole story. ROC builds on a USDA Organic baseline and adds third-party-verified standards across soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness, the highest bar available in regenerative agriculture today. That standard is already resonating with shoppers. ROC products saw a 22% increase in buyers in 2025, outpacing growth in established labels like Fair Trade USA (11%) and USDA Organic (7%). Total U.S. Multi-Outlet (MULO) dollar sales for certified regenerative products have climbed steadily since 2022, and the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) reports 25% year-over-year sales growth across the certification as a whole.
KeHE Distributors® carries brands at the forefront of this movement, including SIMPLi, a brand known for its grain, bean, oil, superfood, and spice products. That partnership traces back to Rodale Institute, a founding member of the Regenerative Organic Alliance whose decades of soil health research helped shape the ROC™ standard itself. We asked ROA and SIMPLi to help retailers understand what’s driving this movement, and why now is the moment to act on it.
What Makes Regenerative Organic Certified Different
According to the Regenerative Organic Alliance
Q: How is ROC different from standard organic certification?
ROC starts with a USDA Organic baseline and layers on verified standards across three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. It’s the only regenerative certification built on an organic foundation and audited by independent third-party certifiers. That’s what separates it from unregulated “regenerative” claims with no standard behind them. ROC was developed by the Regenerative Organic Alliance, founded by Rodale Institute, Patagonia, and Dr. Bronner’s. It’s structured in three tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold, so brands can show continuous improvement rather than a single pass-or-fail bar.
Q: What role does Rodale Institute play in helping brands earn ROC™ certification?
Rodale Institute is a founding member of the Regenerative Organic Alliance, alongside Patagonia and Dr. Bronner’s, and its decades of soil health research and field trials helped shape the principles behind the ROC™ standard itself. ROA and its approved third-party certifiers administer the actual certification process, while Rodale’s role is to keep that process grounded in science and measurable outcomes rather than marketing language. Put simply, ROA answers “how do we verify a product meets the standard,” while Rodale answers “why does the standard exist in the first place”. Together this gives brands a certification built on both rigorous governance and research-backed credibility.
Q: How big is the movement today?
As of March 2026, ROC spanned more than 20 million certified acres, over 65,000 farms and smallholder farmers, and more than 2,700 certified products across 350-plus licensed brands. Retailers looking to go deeper can also join ROA’s Retailer Impact Network, a peer group that helps retail leaders share regenerative sourcing and shopper education best practices.
Q: How should retailers talk to shoppers about what “regenerative” actually means?
ROA designed ROC to work as a clear, trusted signal on its own, so retailers don’t need to walk every shopper through all three pillars to build trust. A short shelf tag or callout referencing the certification, paired with a line about the audit behind it, does most of that work. ROA’s Retailer Impact Network also exists specifically to help retail leaders share what’s working on the shopper education side, rather than each retailer solving that problem alone.
Q: Where does ROA see this movement in the next five years?
ROA is already extending ROC beyond food into clothing and personal care, with the beauty and cosmetics program currently in a co-creation phase with brands and certifiers. The expectation is that regenerative organic follows the same path organic did, starting as a differentiator and becoming an expected baseline, just on a faster timeline since it can build on the trust organic already earned.
SIMPLi’s Journey from One Crop to a Full Regenerative Pathway
SIMPLi, founded in 2020 by Sarela Herrada and Matt Cohen, began by sourcing quinoa directly from Indigenous farmers in Puno, Peru, and grew into a full regenerative supply chain spanning 13 countries and over 20 varieties of heirloom beans, ancient grains, and single-origin oils.
Q: Why build a company around this certification specifically?
“We can’t speak about regenerative organic agriculture without speaking about Indigenous agriculture,” says SIMPLi co-founder Sarela Herrada. That belief shaped SIMPLi’s Regenerative Pathway Program, which moves farming partners from conventional practices through organic certification and on to ROC, backed by financing, agronomic guidance, and guaranteed market access. SIMPLi now works directly with more than 2,000 farmers across 13 countries, with no commodity middlemen in the chain.
Q: Does regenerative farming actually change the product?
SIMPLi worked with an independent, ISO-accredited lab to test its full portfolio against USDA nutrient benchmarks, and the results came back with the products averaging 10% more nutrition than the benchmark, with fiber and omega-3 running 55% higher. That’s the kind of proof point that turns a sustainability story into a health story, which is often the stronger sell at shelf.
Q: How does SIMPLi think about the price premium relative to conventional products?
The premium is real, and SIMPLi doesn’t downplay it. Fair wages, financing for farmers transitioning to regenerative practices, and a ban on synthetic inputs all cost money. But SIMPLi’s own consumer research found that price concerns dropped substantially once shoppers understood the sourcing story behind the product, and shoppers who buy on values are willing to pay more for brands that align with their identity.
Q: What’s SIMPLi’s advice to retailers on merchandising ROC products?
Lead with health, not just sustainability. SIMPLi’s own research found shoppers respond most to nutrient density and health benefits, so pairing the ROC story with that motivation outperforms an environmental pitch alone. Making the proof visible matters too, calling out specific, verified data rather than relying on the seal by itself, since shoppers increasingly want evidence over claims.
The Opportunity Is Still Wide Open
ROA and SIMPLi both point to the same comparison when they talk about where this movement is headed. Consumer awareness of regenerative organic products is growing quickly as more brands adopt the certification. That gives retailers who build shelf education now a real chance to own that positioning before it becomes table stakes.
Per SPINS data through Q2 2026, 16 of the top 30 ROC brands in the Natural channel are outpacing market dollar growth, with 17 outpacing market unit growth, a sign the category’s momentum is broad rather than carried by a single brand. Most of today’s certified regenerative dollars sit in pantry staples. Sweeteners, pasta, rice, and grains lead the category, making those aisles the logical place for a retailer to start if shelf space is limited. A dedicated display or shelf callout for regenerative organic staples can build shopper awareness while giving customers an easy entry point into the category.
Ready to bring ROC products into your line-up? Contact your KeHE Account Manager to see where these products fit into your assortment. Not yet a KeHE Retailer? Sign up to shop a curated assortment of ROC brands.