Regenerative Agriculture: Quantifying the Benefits of Bee Better Certified at the Farm Level

As of this past month, the Conservation Innovation Grants program at the USDA awarded Bee Better Certified a second round of funding of $2.5 million to help communicate the stacked environmental benefits of our on-farm certification. 

That is, the Conservation Innovation team at USDA sees Bee Better Certified as a potential benchmark for regenerative agriculture – employing practices such as flowering cover crops that provide multiple sustainability dividends: protecting pollinators of course, but also supporting soil health and climate resilience on farms. 

Through this new round of USDA backing the Bee Better team will be developing field trials that deeply quantify and document these multifaceted benefits at the farm level, with a goal of communicating the results back to consumers and brands that are sourcing Bee Better Certified ingredients.

Click here to read the full award summary.

Certifier On-boarding: Growing the Reach of Bee Better Certifiers

As Bee Better certified acreage continues to grow within the United States, the program has received an increase in interest, including applications from abroad. There is now one Bee Better Certified operation in Peru and several in Chile, with interest from additional agricultural and food labeling companies based in Central and South America.

With support and oversight from Oregon Tilth--our partners in developing the original program and Bee Better Certified’s first certifying body--we have developed a certifier on-boarding application and licensing process to take on new third-party certification bodies. By growing the list of certification bodies that can verify the Bee Better Standards, we are laying the foundation for the program’s growth as calls for sustainability initiatives built around regenerative agriculture continue to echo throughout the food industry.
From the Field: Washington Habitat Project Updates

Xerces Society/Bee Better Certified staff rounded out the 2021 field season with habitat seeding projects at several sites around apple and stone fruit orchards in central Washington. With support from General Mills, the Xerces Society is able to help underwrite the costs of on-farm habitat with growers in the General Mills supply chain throughout the western growing regions, such as central Washington’s Tree Top member-growers. 

Xerces Staff seeded over 18 species of native, drought tolerant plants near several orchards, enhancing the diversity of existing natural and unused areas to meet the Bee Better Certified habitat standards. The seed mixes, designed by Xerces staff, include native species with a variety of bloom times and flower types to support honey bees and a diversity of native pollinators throughout the growing season. Natural areas (owned by the grower) can count towards the habitat requirements under Bee Better Certified, so long as at least 35% of the vegetation is native and 3 species are blooming throughout the growing season.

To learn more about the General Mills habitat work, contact [email protected].
For more information on Bee Better Certified
or contact us directly:

Cameron Newell
Bee Better Certified Program Coordinator

Eric Lee-Mäder
Pollinator and Agricultural Biodiversity Program, Co-Director

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Banner Photo: Cameron Newell / The Xerces Society
Inset: Anna Murray / The Xerces Society

 
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