This past February, the International Food Information Council released the results of a study on consumer awareness about regenerative agriculture. Of 1,000 people surveyed, only 19% said they were familiar with the term, compared with 59% who were familiar with "organic." Perhaps unsurprisingly, only 12% said they were highly likely to pay more for food raised regeneratively.
This low level of understanding about what regenerative agriculture is coincides with the arrival of "regenerative" labels on food packaging. Since each label has a different metric behind its claim, chances are high that they will only further confuse a lot of already ambivalent consumers. Begging the question: How can a general public that's largely unaware of the existence of regenerative agriculture — let alone able to parse its wide-ranging practices — be expected to seek it out when they shop? "It's like the Wild West out there," says Kari Hamerschlag, deputy director of the Food and Agriculture Program at nonprofit Friends of the Earth.
