Natural, sustainable, organic: yesterday’s news. When it comes to virtuous eating, “regenerative” is the buzzword du jour.

But what, exactly, does it mean? The term lacks a single legal or regulatory definition, which makes for a complicated answer.

Broadly speaking, “regenerative agriculture” describes a holistic approach to farming focused on continuously improving the health of the soil, increasing biodiversity and drawing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and into the ground.

But if “organic” is at risk of losing its soul, “regenerative” is even more susceptible to use and abuse by anyone who wants to telegraph climate-friendly values with little in the way of follow-through.

Unlike organic, the latter term has no legally binding definition, and bold claims about how much carbon regenerative practices could sequester—whether, for instance, a grass-fed cow could ever erase its own carbon footprint—are still a matter of intense scientific debate.

“What regenerative means is entirely dependent on who is speaking,” said Dave Chapman, executive director of the Real Organic Project, a nonprofit that produces an add-on certification for farmers who go above and beyond the USDA organic label. “The challenges the organic movement faces in terms of corporate takeover is exactly what’s happening in the regenerative movement, only with regenerative, it’s happening more quickly.”

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