A. — The Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal coalition was formed for the purpose of ensuring that farmers and ranchers—not just corporate agribusiness lobbyists—have a voice in future agriculture-related policy reforms. The timing of the coalition’s formation coincided with the February 7, 2019, introduction of the Green New Deal Resolution which calls for a 10-year national mobilization to enact massive policy reforms to address, among other issues, global warming, income inequality, corporate monopolies and the lack of access to clean air, water and healthy food for millions of Americans.

A. — The coalition’s Congressional advisors are:

• Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
• Rep. Chellie Pingre (D-Maine)
• Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
• Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.)
• Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)
• Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

A. — The coalition co-chairs are:

• Will Harris, White Oak Pastures, Bluffton, Ga.
• Sherri Dugger, Dugger Family Farm, Morristown, Ind.; Socially Responsible Agriculture Project; and Indiana Farmers Union
• Ben Dobson, Stone House Farm, Hudson Valley, N.Y.
• Elizabeth Kaiser, Singing Frogs Farm, Sebastopol, Calif.
• Francis Thicke, Radiance Dairy, Fairfield, Iowa

A. — Many of America’s small- and mid-scale farmers and ranchers, struggling to make ends meet, are at risk of losing farms that have been in their families for many generations. Rural communities are in economic decline. Industrial agriculture practices have led to widespread water and air pollution, soil erosion and degradation, food deserts, and public health crises related to the reckless and excessive use of antibiotics and the mass production of nutritionally deficient food. Current agriculture policies artificially prop up this system, which externalizes the real cost of producing “cheap” food, including the system’s harmful and costly impact on climate, the environment and human health. Yet these policies prevail and persist because powerful agribusiness corporations can afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year lobbying Congress. Policies that would support family farms are closely aligned with policies that would achieve the goals laid out in the Green New Deal. For that reason, politics aside, the Green New Deal presents an unprecedented opportunity for farmers and ranchers whose practices provide social, economic and environmental benefits to demand reforms that will improve their prospects for financial success by leveling the playing field.

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