A Greener World (AGW) has certified Manna Hill Estate as the first farm in Australia to be Certified Regenerative. The certification provides a whole-farm assurance of regeneration and sustainability, measuring benefits for soil, water, air, biodiversity, infrastructure, animal welfare, and social responsibility.
As public interest in sustainability continues to increase and broaden in scope, the demand for rigorous, meaningful assurances of responsible farming and processing practices has grown.
Building on its successful family of leading labels, A Greener World’s Certified Regenerative program is a whole-farm, plan-based regenerative certification – giving farmers, consumers, and buyers confidence in reliability and impact.
Manna Hill Estate owner Campbell Mercer, says Manna Hill is a small, family run, dry range olive grove. Located in Mount Egerton near Ballarat, Mercer produces and manufactures award-winning Certified Regenerative by AGW and certified organic extra-virgin olive oil, table olives, soaps, and skin care balms made from around 2,500 olive trees planted at Manna Hill Estate.
The farm management practices at Manna Hill Estate are focused on improving soil health through applying biological methods, such as compost, biochar, creating biofertilisers, extensive mulching, and cover cropping. These practices also help to increase the water-holding capacity of the soil and to minimise evaporation, which will become increasingly important as climate change takes hold.
Manna Hill Estate was a participant in AGW’s inaugural Certified Regenerative pilot cohort, made up of a group of over 50 farms across the globe that spent the last two years in partnership with A Greener World, evaluating farm standards, plans, and auditing procedures for Certified Regenerative by AGW, which have been under development since 2017.
Certified Regenerative by AGW ensures farms are meeting initial rigorous sustainability standards, but also continually improving. Recognising every farm is a unique part of an ecosystem, the core of Certified Regenerative by AGW is a farm-specific, steward-led Regenerative Plan where producers assess risks, set goals, and track progress toward their own meaningful milestones with support from qualified experts in agronomy, biodiversity, water quality, and other fields. Plans are reviewed, approved, and then audited on an ongoing basis by A Greener World, offering farmers and consumers a third-party source of accountability for each farm’s regenerative progress.
Mercer of Manna Hill Estate said Manna Hill chose to certify with A Greener World because of its global footprint and robust certification offering a transparent, independent, third-party validation of farming techniques and processes.
“Although the concept of regenerative farming is currently not well known among Australian consumers, we anticipate that this will rapidly evolve, and that our hard-won Certified Regenerative by AGW logo will become critical to our marketing success. It provides customers with the comfort and assurance that we really are farming how we say we are,” said Mercer.
A Greener World UK and Europe executive director Wayne Copp said, “We know the collection of farming practices described as ‘regenerative’ has huge potential to put the brakes on — and even reverse — many of the negative impacts associated with intensive agriculture. We are proud to work with Manna Hill Estate, the world’s first Certified Regenerative by AGW olive producer, and we are delighted that Campbell has chosen us as the logo his customers can trust to deliver genuinely positive outcomes: on the farm, at the table, and for the planet.”
