Advancing Regenerative Beef Certification

November 20, 2025

Cows in a field. — Brown Ranch Cattle grazing at an eastern North Dakota ranch. © 2012 Richard Hamilton Smith

Well-managed grazing lands are the foundation of a thriving beef industry—and resilient ecosystems. These imperiled landscapes provide critical habitats, produce clean water, store carbon, and sustain rural communities. But to achieve meaningful impact, we must work with ranchers and land managers, as well as other key players in the beef industry to create systemic changes in the supply chain.

One approach TNC is pursuing is working with ranchers and industry leaders to establish certification and verification systems that create a transparent, sustainable beef supply chain in the United States.

TNC is helping to establish certification and verification programs rooted in rigorous, science-based standards—covering environmental stewardship, animal health, worker safety and more—to support a beef supply chain that delivers verified sustainability from pasture to plate.

Rob Manes Co-director, Regenerative Grazing Lands Strategy, North America

Why Certification Matters

Certification and verification programs rooted in science have the potential for scaling regenerative grazing practices because they create trust, accountability, and market incentives. Here’s why they matter:

Transparency and Consumer Confidence

Consumers increasingly demand proof that their food is produced sustainably. Certification provides verifiable evidence that beef comes from operations following regenerative principles, while traceability ensures that this claim holds true from ranch to retail. This transparency builds trust and strengthens demand for sustainable beef.
Incentivizing Ranchers

Certification programs reward ranchers who invest in soil health, biodiversity, and water conservation. By linking these practices to market premiums and procurement standards, ranchers have a financial reason to adopt regenerative grazing, making it economically viable at large scales.
Supply Chain Alignment

The beef industry is complex, involving ranchers, feeders, processors, retailers, and food service companies. Certification and verification create a common framework for sustainability standards, enabling all stakeholders to align on regenerative goals and measure progress consistently.
Continuous Improvement and Verification

Independent reviews and audits ensure that programs deliver real ecological benefits, not just marketing claims. This credibility is critical for scaling because it prevents “greenwashing” and maintains integrity as adoption increases.
Large-Scale Impact

When certification becomes embedded in corporate procurement policies and consumer expectations, it has the potential to transform regenerative grazing to a widespread mainstream standard. This is how an initiative that TNC participated in is currently influencing more 46 million grazing land acres.

Partnering for Verified Progress

TNC is committed to improving grazing land health by collaborating with both private and government entities to strengthen certification and verification systems. Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires cattle traceability for disease monitoring and control, but only for a limited subset of cattle. This framework could be expanded to enable voluntary participation by ranchers who want financial benefits from value-added price premiums for verified sustainability attributes.

To accelerate this shift, TNC worked with Where Food Comes From—the largest commercial provider of certification and verification services to the livestock industry—to integrate environmental sustainability measures into the company’s CARE Certified standard. This program aligns beef production with regenerative principles and is verified by independent third-party reviewers to ensure optimal outcomes.

TNC is also working with other emerging private certification enterprises focused on regenerative grazing. While these initiatives are still building enrollment, they represent critical steps toward scaling credible, science-based regenerative grazing outcomes.

By expanding programs that prioritize rigorous, independent verification, this conservation–industry partnership can drive large-scale improvements in grazing land health across nearly a quarter-billion acres by 2030.

Certification and verification go beyond compliance—they create a framework that empowers every stakeholder in the beef supply chain to build healthier lands, stronger communities and a more resilient planet.