Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/18/19

Regeneration International, a fledgling regenerative agriculture nonprofit, has teamed up with the Sunrise Movement, a youth-driven climate activist group perhaps best known for once occupying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, to launch a new coalition aimed at getting farmers and ranchers behind the Green New Deal.

Hill debut: The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal coalition will hold a press conference on Capitol Hill this morning with a handful of House Democrats, including Reps. Chellie Pingree, Jim McGovern, Earl Blumenauer, Deb Haaland and Peter DeFazio.

"A lot of farmers that I talk to every day, they don't understand what the Green New Deal is going to be about," said Sherri Dugger, an Indiana farmer who co-chairs the new coalition, in a promo video. "I'm here to say we need to be involved in this discussion and we need to be at the table and we need to have our voices heard." (Dugger is also executive director of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network and co-owner of Dugger Family Farm in Morristown, Ind.)

Putting ag in the climate debate: The coalition is delivering a letter to Congress today that calls for farming to have a prominent place in meeting the goals of the Green New Deal, which seeks to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 to 2050. The coalition says the economy should move away from fossil fuels and transition "toward family farm-based organic and regenerative farming and land-use practices that improve soil health and draw down and sequester carbon."

Moving beyond 'cow fart-gate': No one in agriculture can forget the bungled rollout of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal resolution, which some will forever associate with banning cows despite there being no mention of cows in the resolution. (To refresh: Her office said the fact sheet that referenced eliminating "farting cows" was posted by mistake, but it was too late to prevent widespread mockery.)

Climate strikes coming soon: The coalition's rollout this week is timed to coincide with the global Climate Strike event on Friday and the upcoming New York City Climate Week.