Minnesota company sells world's first regenerative organic vanilla extract. What does that mean?

From a warehouse near the Minnesota state fairgrounds, Andy Kubiak loaded the world's first and only regenerative organic certified crop of vanilla beans into the back of a Honda CRV.

After driving the cargo east to a small facility near the St. Croix River in Lakeland, the company he runs with his wife, Sara, transformed the beans into another first and only, a batch of regenerative organic certified (ROC) vanilla extract.

And while the beans and batch will always remain No. 1, they won't be an only for long.

Last year, Vanilla Bean Project joined a small but growing group of brands to achieve the certification, seen as the pinnacle of sustainable agriculture. That meant partnering with a supplier in Indonesia, Aliet Green, that has met stringent standards of soil management and farmer well-being.

"Vanilla can be a flagship product, an example of how regenerative organics work," Sara Kubiak said. "It comes in small bottles, we only use a teaspoon at a time, but people have an immediate and close connection with it."

More than 20 years after the U.S. Department of Agriculture began the National Organic Program and started issuing those green USDA Organic seals to certified growers and manufacturers, the regenerative organic movement now seeks to build on the commercial success of low-impact agriculture.

Regenerative organic uses USDA Organic (no synthetic fertilizers or genetic modification) as the baseline but adds in fair trade, carbon concerns and an emphasis on human and animal welfare.

"There are so many provisions to take into account," said Andy Kubiak, "and to provide an audited pathway for reaching the highest standards of renewable agriculture."

So far, the label has attracted consumers at a rapid rate. ROC sales rose 39% last year based on the number of products sold, according to SPINS data. At the same time, sales of organic, non-GMO- or fair trade-labeled products shrank.

An Ernst & Young survey found while it is a "growing minority" of consumers who are paying higher prices for sustainable products, many shoppers and companies acknowledge adaptation is necessary to deal with a changing climate.

"Overall, consumers are planning to buy less and buy better," wrote Kristina Rogers, EY global consumer leader. "Many want to switch to products that align with their new values, priorities and lifestyles, and some will pay extra for that if necessary. This is especially true for younger consumers."

Kubiak said as a result of that pent-up demand, Vanilla Bean Project has been fielding phone calls from food companies that want to use ROC vanilla in their products.

"It's a canvas to create change," he said. "This is the coolest thing in the world for us."

Unlike USDA Organic labels, a private group — rather than a government agency — administers the regenerative organic certification with the help of third-party auditors.

The Regenerative Organic Alliance, which Patagonia, Dr. Bronner's and the Rodale Institute helped establish in 2017, has certified about 6 million acres, a thousand different products, 350 crops and 150 brands as ROC.

"Climate change is happening before our eyes, but if you do what I do all day, you don't stop to think about all the frightening aspects," said the group's executive director, Elizabeth Whitlow. "Something I keep encountering is hope. I'm so full of hope because of the people I'm surrounded by."

Among the standards for regenerative organic certification, farms must use practices that:

• are certified USDA organic.
• increase soil organic matter and sequester carbon below and above ground by maintaining year-round vegetative cover, rotating crops and minimizing tilling.
• improve animal welfare through rotational grazing, a ban on permanent confinement and limiting excessive artificial light.
• provide economic stability and fairness for farmers, ranchers and workers by mandating growers have a voice, ensuring safety and requiring fair and timely payments.

These are just some of the dozens of requirements the Regenerative Organic Alliance checks for when awarding a bronze, silver or gold certification. Annual audits are required at every level.

"This is a rigorous program, and people criticized us at the beginning for setting too high a bar," Whitlow said. "But I can tell you so many stories about farmers who had their best year ever [after being certified]."

Vanilla Bean Project has the capacity to produce tanker trunks full of vanilla extract, which it sells to retailers and food makers in various packaged sizes, though the company didn't give a specific annual production figure. If demand from other food companies materializes, the company might call those tanker trucks in, however.

"Sara and Andy came into a sector we hadn't yet seen and at a sizeable scale," Whitlow said. "That's going to have a huge impact."

Andy Kubiak spent decades in the organics industry and sees ROC as a natural and needed evolution to build on what organic has done.

"We want to revalue the supply chain for commodities that are always imported," Andy Kubiak said, including not just vanilla but black pepper, coffee and chocolate.

For Vanilla Bean Project, which started five years ago and today employs five people, the goal is not simply to sell more vanilla at a premium. It's to change how crops grow around the world and ultimately reach our plates.

"Because we're pioneers and leaders in ROC vanilla, we get to set the rules for how this gets traded," he said. "There is a premium we have negotiated with Aliet Green, and that goes right to the growers.

"Our small company changed the world."