The GRASS Standard
An approach to regenerative verification that offers flexibility for producers and consistency for brands.
What’s the difference between Growing GRASS and the GRASS standard?
The Growing GRASS project is focused on building out traceable meat processing byproducts supply chains from regeneratively raised cattle and bison.
At the heart of this project is the Generalized Regenerative Agriculture Sourcing Specification (GRASS). GRASS is an equivalency standard that was created to verify the traceability and claims of materials from regenerative production systems.
How does the GRASS standard work?
The GRASS standard identifies indicators to substantiate “regeneratively raised” product claims in the marketplace.
Cattle and bison producers can demonstrate that they meet the GRASS indicators by choosing from a menu of established certification systems, including — but not limited to — the American Grassfed Association, Savory, Audubon, and Regenerative Organic Certified.
The standard also recognizes company and community approaches to regenerative production that meet its indicator criteria, and is designed to welcome new, credible verification technologies and approaches.
The GRASS standard’s equivalency approach allows producers with different certifications to contribute to a common category that can reach a viable scale.
The result is a market-ready verification of “regeneratively raised” materials that’s been tailor-made for a cattle or bison producer’s specific situation.
What are the benefits of the GRASS standard?
The standard’s menu approach offers farmers and ranchers flexibility in how they meet GRASS’s requirements to be considered a “regeneratively raised” operation. By allowing producers a choice of verification or certification system, GRASS encourages both diversity and ongoing innovation in the verification space.
This approach also allows farmers and ranchers to access more than one value-added marketplace without additional costs or work.
The GRASS standard helps processors and traders sell byproducts at a viable scale by collecting them from a variety of supported certification sources.
The GRASS standard benefits partners down the supply chain as well. Brands can source from multiple certificated regenerative sources while maintaining consistency, credibility, and shared attribute claims.
Which certifications are included in the GRASS standard?
We work closely with our partnering certifying organizations to ensure we understand their assurance systems and continue to represent them accurately in our standard.
Below are the current approved supporting standards.*
— A Greener World
— American Grassfed Association
— Audubon
— EOV / Savory
— Regenerative Organic Certified
*Other verification approaches can also be used to meet GRASS requirements.
What’s the status of the GRASS standard? Can I use it today, and what will it look like in the future?
The first version of the GRASS standard — what we call “GRASS 1.0” — is currently in use to validate traceable supplies of byproducts like hides, organs, and other products from regeneratively-raised beef cattle and bison.
We anticipate releasing GRASS 1.1 as a formalized iteration of the standard in 2025, complete with a governance structure and policies on claims, traceability, and more. As the release of GRASS 1.1 approaches, we’ll update this page with new resources.
As GRASS continues to evolve, we will be able to tailor claims to an evolving marketplace, deepen our definitions of each GRASS attribute, explore applications beyond the byproducts space, and work with even more certifying organizations.