Agenda
For the most up-to date view of the main conference schedule, visit the link through the button below.
Sessions
You may also view session titles and descriptions by clicking the cards below. Sessions on cards with a white background are in-person only; sessions on cards with a blue background are hybrid (both in person and broadcast on Organic Seed Commons).
Friday, February 28: Session 1
The Heirloom Collards Project
The Heirloom Collards Project
Chris Smith, Heirloom Collard Project
Eva Steinberg, Heirloom Collard Project
Ira Wallace, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Facilitator: Edward Johnson, Oregon Tilth
The Heirloom Collard Project is a grassroots collaborative initiative to keep seeds and collards in the hands of communities who will grow, save, and celebrate them. The HCP stewards over 100 collard varieties throughout its partner organizations. Representatives from the core HCP team will present the ever adapting and evolving organizational model of the HCP, which is decentralized and fluid, and aims to support and inspire authentic collard connections. The HCP spans youth education, community plant breeding, variety preservation, culinary exploration, cultural traditions, art and poetry, farm and gardening, and so much more. We’ll share a number of collard-focused projects, which have grown out of the HCP, and invite you to develop your own collard initiative.
Seed to Seed in the Desert Southwest: Native Seeds/SEARCH and Indigenous-Based Circular Community Food Systems
Seed to Seed in the Desert Southwest: Native Seeds/SEARCH and Indigenous-Based Circular Community Food Systems
Helena Gonzales, Native Seeds/SEARCH
Joel Johnson, Native Seeds/SEARCH
Veronica Limeberry, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Northern Arizona University
Facilitator: Susana Cabrera-Mariz, Organic Seed Alliance
Food begins with seed, and as such, community-based circular food systems (C-B CFS) must start at the seed. Many Indigenous cosmovisions support a circular vision of life, emphasizing that all threads are intimately connected, whereas if one thread is touched, all others ripple; in this way, seed as the central thread of all food systems shapes the entire web of relations around it. The U.S. southwest-based organization Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) has long recognized the centrality of seed for community and food systems. NS/S embodies an Indigenous-based, holistic vision of seed-to-seed models for regional food sovereignty. As climate change, economic crises, border politics, and rapid land-use change disrupt both foodways and communities in the desert southwest, the sacred knowledge and seeds of Indigenous peoples across the region steward possibilities for transformative, sustainable change. Panelists will discuss how a healthy food system must be embedded in a healthy, regional seed system that incorporates the practices and realities of Indigenous keepers of these seeds and foods. This session explores NS/S’s 40-year history, from creating a community seed bank to fostering Indigenous-led seed-to-food systems to building and supporting circular (but not enclosed) seedways that bridge food and cultural sovereignties. Attendees will learn how these initiatives address climate challenges while honoring the region’s cultural and biological diversity.
Open-source seeds worldwide: Breeding, Growing, Selling, Spreading
Open-Source Seeds Worldwide – Breeding, Growing, Selling, and Spreading
Almendra Cremaschi, Bioleft, University of San Martin
Andrew Still, Adaptive Seeds
Carol Deppe, Open Source Seed Initiative
Daniel Wanjama, Seed Savers Network Kenya
Facilitator: Cathleen McCluskey, Organic Seed Alliance
Independent plant breeder and Board Chair of the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) Carol Deppe and an international cast of seed savers will share their innovative approaches to breeding varieties adapted to climate extremes. Using examples from her own work with cowpeas, corn, and squash, Deppe will demonstrate techniques for breeding super-vigorous, fast-growing plants that extend the geographic rage of production. She calls this strategy of creating vigorous fast-growing varieties that outgrow most problems Breeding for Organics 2.0. Learn how selecting varieties for large seed size, overseeding when planting, and thinning at exactly the right stage create powerful selection. Topics include selection processes, crossbreeding methods, and strategies for partnering with retail seed companies as a wholesaler to bring organic varieties to market. Don’t miss this all-star session!
Participatory Plant Breeding: Insights and Experiences from the Organic Farmer Perspective
Participatory Plant Breeding: Insights and Experiences from the Organic Farmer Perspective
Heather Estrada, Organic Farming Research Foundation
Pryor Garnett, Garnetts Red Prairie Farm
Beth Hoinacki, Goodfoot Farm
Facilitator: Michael Lordon, Organic Seed Alliance
Participatory plant breeding, where farmers and breeders collaborate to develop the best crop varieties, is thriving in the northwest. Programs focused on organic vegetables, small grains and other specialty crops are well-established and successfully working toward crop improvement, but what is it like to be a farmer who works within a participatory program? This panel features organic farmers, including Beth Hoinacki of Goodfoot Farm and Pryor Garnett of Garnetts Red Prairie Farm, collaborating with breeders on participatory plant breeding projects. They will share their experiences, challenges, and benefits of working with researchers to improve crop varieties. Attendees will gain insights into how collaborative breeding impacts on-farm productivity and supports organic seed systems. This session is geared towards farmers, organic seed industry professionals, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students.
Lessons from Tomato Selection and Breeding
Lessons from Tomato Selection and Breeding
Erica Kempter, Nature & Nurture Seeds
Ambar Carvallo Lopez, UW Madison
Marissa Nix, UW Madison
Keith Mueller, KC Tomato
Facilitator: Michael Lordon, Organic Seed Alliance
Organic farmers often depend on conventional seeds due to the scarcity of organic varieties that meet their needs for disease resistance, high yields, and superior fruit quality. This session will explore two participatory tomato breeding projects that involve farmers, chefs, and seed companies. One project was initiated with farmers to identify desirable traits, while the other was driven by a small seed company aiming to develop new varieties that farmers would value. Both projects employed an iterative process of on-station and on-farm participatory selection, which has culminated in the development of four outstanding tomato varieties that are now nearing commercialization. Presenters will discuss their participatory breeding methods, highlighting the integral role of farmer, chef, and seed company collaboration, and discuss the challenges encountered, including managing diverse stakeholder expectations and ensuring genetic diversity. Learn how this model can not only advance the availability of high-quality organic tomato seed, but also set a precedent for inclusive and responsive agricultural research, fostering resilience and sustainability in organic farming communities.
How Seed Companies Line Up Growers for Seed Contracts
How Seed Companies Line Up Growers for Seed Contracts
Bonnetta Adeeb, Steam Onward Inc/Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
Ken Bezilla, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Matt Helgeson, Albert Lea Seeds
Sarah Kleeger, Adaptive Seeds
Emily Pence, Fedco Seeds
Facilitator: Dan Brisebois, Tourne-Sol Co-operative Farm
Representatives from a diversity of seed companies will discuss how they connect with seed growers and coordinate crop production. The panel will share insights into fostering successful relationships, balancing grower needs, and navigating the complexities of lining up seed contracts.
Friday, February 28th: Session 2
Predictive yields for small-scale staple crop production using common homestead equipment and minimal inputs
Predictive Yields for Small-Scale Staple Crop Production Using Common Homestead equipment and Minimal Inputs
Eleanor & Scott Hucker, Great Lakes Staple Seeds
Facilitator: Alexis Yamashita, University of Vermont
This session, led by heirloom seed growers Eleanor and Scott Hucker of Great Lakes Staple Seeds, will provide insights into their SARE-funded research project “Predictive yields for small-scale staple crop production in North Central States using common homestead equipment and minimal inputs”. Topics include predictive yields and small scale crop production of barley, buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, potatoes, rye, sorghum (milo), soybeans, sunflower, triticale, wheat, amaranth, and beans.
Concentration of Power, Intellectual Property Rights, and Genetic Diversity in the U.S. Seed System
Concentration of Power, Intellectual Property Rights, and Genetic Diversity in the U.S. Seed System
Dr. Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kiki Hubbard, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paulina Jenney, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Facilitator: Cathleen McCluskey, Organic Seed Alliance
How can we ensure that farmers have the best seed varieties to meet changing environmental, societal, and market needs? The USDA and a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been examining issues of consolidated market power in the seed industry and developing strategies to increase opportunities for small, independent companies and public plant breeders and seed growers. In 2023, after a robust public comment period, the team published More and Better Choices for Farmers: Promoting Innovation and Fair Competition in Seed and Other Agricultural Inputs, a report focused on the intersection of intellectual property and antitrust in the seed industry and its impacts on the resilience of our food supply. This session will review findings from the 2023 report, provide updates on USDA’s work on fair and competitive markets, and share recommendations toward a more diversified seed system.
Organic and Seeds in the Farm Bill: How Does the Farm Bill Relate to the Needs for Organic Seed Growers
Organic and Seeds in the Farm Bill: How Does the Farm Bill Relate to the Needs for Organic Seed Growers
Brise Tencer, Organic Farming Research Foundation
Kelli Case, Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative
Steve Etka, National Organic Coalition
Facilitator: Cathleen McCluskey, Organic Seed Alliance
This session will focus on the federal Farm Bill, and why the legislation matters to organic seed growers. The panel will talk about “marker bills” and how they relate to the Farm Bill process, using Senator Tammy Baldwin’s Seeds and Breeds for the Future Act as an example of a marker bill endorsed by many organizational members of the Seeds and Breeds Coalition. There will also be discussion of how priorities of the Native Farm Bill Coalition were incorporated into the bill, and led to the their endorsement of the bill. The panelists will explain the status of the Farm Bill and will compare how the 2024 House and Senate versions of the bill address organic and seed issues. While Farm Bills are usually passed every five years, the process leading up to the final passage of often takes several years. As soon as a Farm Bill is enacted, the process of USDA implementation of the legislation starts. As such, Farm Bill advocacy is perpetual. The panel will discuss this on-the-ground reality and how it relates to the work of the advocacy community. The session will include a discussion how seed growers can engage in the Farm Bill advocacy process and a Q&A.
Starting a Small-Scale Seed Business: Formation, Sustainable Growth, Systems and Infrastructure.
Starting a small scale seed business: Formation, successes and failures, sustainable growth, implementing systems, and developing infrastructure for drying and cleaning of seed.
Katie Jagger, Saltwater Seeds
Samuel Scheidt, Saltwater Seeds
Facilitator: Kiki Elfendahl, Organic Seed Alliance
Katie Jagger and Sam Scheidt of Saltwater Seeds will share their experiences forming and growing a small scale seed business in the Maritime Northwest. Their talk will cover forming a multi-owner seed business, their systems for crop management and seed processing, and securing grant funding. They will share crop successes and failures, management of diverse farm sites, and the learning curve involved in managing the evolving needs of their operation. They will present their findings of incorporating a new energy efficient seed drying/ cleaning barn into their systems which was funded through the WSDA Infrastructure Grant. Participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences, ask questions, and explore solutions to common challenges.
Growing Seed Freedom in Latin America: Lessons from the Field
Growing Seed Freedom in Latin America: Lessons from the Field
Javier Carrera, Seeds Guardians Network of Ecuador
Facilitator: Laura Lewis, Organic Seed Alliance
Representatives from Ecuador’s Network of Seed Guardians will share their experiences in advocating for seed freedom, including farmer education, public outreach, and participatory certification and advocacy. The session will also highlight similar struggles across Latin America, fostering solidarity in the global fight for seed sovereignty.
Seed Cosmology of Indigenous and African Women & Our Vision of Being Good Ancestors
Seed Cosmology of Indigenous and African Women and Our Vision of Being Good Ancestors
Jennifer Bailey, Systems Transformation Partnership
Jim Embry, Sustainable Communities Network/Cumberland Seed Commons/Atrus Ballew Farm/Slow Food USA
Facilitator: Laura Lewis, Organic Seed Alliance
In the Seed Cosmology, the origin of the universe 4.5 billion years ago is not from the Big Bang but rather the BIG SEEDING when stardust became seeds for the universe. Some of those cosmic seeds then congealed in the form of our Mother Earth. This session celebrates the strength and vision of those who came before us and the need to ground our seed work in the Indigenous cosmology of seeds. How can we deepen our own consciousness of history and seek out Indigenous Wisdom to revitalize ourselves and discover new ways to be in right-relationship with the land, our natural environment, and our fellow humanity? The Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana – “Sankofa” – literally means it is never too late to go back and fetch what has been lost, including our path, our relationship with the environment, and our ancient wisdom. Presenters will discuss the importance of honoring ancestral knowledge, strengthening our connection to the land, and integrating these teachings into seed systems to build a more sustainable and just future.
Nonbinary Botany: In Practice
Nonbinary Botany: In Practice
Chris Keeve, University of Kentucky / Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance / Utopian Seed Project
K Greene, Hudson Valley Seed Co / HV Farm Hub
Rue Genger, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Facilitator: Molly Travis, Organic Seed Alliance
Nonbinary botany is an emerging que(e)ry that invites people to question and reimagine the binary constructs imposed on botanical sciences, making space for more inclusive and expansive relationships with plants. The colonial and heteronormative language and practice of mainstream horti/culture and agri/culture has an outsized, and largely unquestioned, influence on how plants are studied and grown, in particular how breeding and seed work interacts with the full life cycles of plants. This limits the scope and accessibility of the knowledge base and genetics that reverberate through seed companies, farms and gardens, universities, popular media, and markets. Panelists will introduce six years of nonbinary botany exploration and share examples of a nonbinary approach to plant and seed work. This session will include a Q&A and facilitated hands-on nonbinary botany design process using the collective skills, knowledge, and experiences of the group to dream into what real-life nonbinary botany plant space.
Friday, February 28th: Session 3
Seed Liberation: Reflections on Seeds in Diaspora, Rematriation & Reciprocity
Seed Liberation: Reflections on Seeds in Diaspora, Rematriation, and Reciprocity
Nate Kleinman, Experimental Farm Network
Amirah Mitchell, Sistah Seeds, Ira Wallace Seed School
Vivien Sansour, Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library
Chris Smith, Heirloom Collard Project
Facilitator: Bonnetta Adeeb, Steam Onward Inc/Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
This panel will explore the complicated and challenging questions that arise when working with seeds and plants removed from their cultural context, particularly those conserved in seed banks and other ex situ germplasm collections. As farmers, plant breeders, and seed company leaders, what do we owe the communities whose ancestors developed the seeds we utilize today? What do we owe the seeds themselves — living beings worthy of deep respect and love? How has doing this work with plants and their people changed our own perspectives and practices? Set against the backdrop of modern neoliberal capitalism, accelerating environmental catastrophe, with spiraling violent conflicts and humanitarian crises, these questions take on added urgency. Panelists will share what the concept of “seed liberation” means to each of us as we grapple together toward a non-extractive model of seed exploration, biodiversity conservation, and agricultural innovation with respect and reciprocity at its core.
Traditional seed preservation methods as alternatives to chemical seed dressing
Traditional Seed Preservation Methods as Alternatives to Chemical Seed Dressing
Mercy Ambani, Seed Savers Network
Raoudath A. O. Bouraima, Les Jardins de L’espoir
Daniel Wanjama, Seed Savers Network Kenya
Facilitator: John Kariuki Mwangi, Slow Food Kenya
The Seed Savers Network (SSN) will present organic alternatives to chemical seed treatments, featuring traditional methods such as wood ash, neem leaves, and soot. This session will explore the results of SSN’s extensive research and fieldwork in collaboration with the National Gene Bank of Kenya and local farming communities across Kenya, highlighting the efficacy and benefits of organic seed preservation techniques. Extensively researched in collaboration with Kenyan farming communities, these traditional techniques offer sustainable solutions for maintaining seed viability and promoting soil health. Participants will learn practical applications and gain insights into advocating for organic seed preservation at policy levels.
Farmer-led Seed Systems: Advocating for policies that advance seed sovereignty at home and abroad
Farmer-led Seed Systems: Advocating for Policies that Advance Seed Sovereignty at Home and Abroad
Marvin Gomez, SeedChange
Pratap Kumar Shrestha, SeedChange
Facilitator: Aabir Dey, SeedChange
The majority of seed regulatory frameworks in Canada, the U.S., the E.U., and internationally discriminate against organic, ecological, peasant, and Indigenous farmers. Instead, regulations favor multinational corporations and encourage reliance on purchasing commercial seed and the agrochemical packages those seeds require. Diminished public funding for plant breeding and seed conservation, and increasingly restrictive intellectual property rights used on seeds have resulted in decreased seed diversity for organic and ecological farmers. Political processes that deeply impact farmers’ rights to save and access seed are often led by large corporations that have concentrated the seed market and rarely engage with marginalized farming constituencies. The resulting impacts of these policies limit opportunities for participatory and farmer-led plant breeding and on-farm seed conservation, and threaten seed sovereignty. In this panel, speakers will discuss various policy advocacy strategies in Canada, Honduras, and Nepal that advance farmer-led solutions to seed policy barriers, and explore the impacts of different models on seed sovereignty. By highlighting this policy work, panelists and participants can build solidarity across multiple jurisdictions to support farmer-led seed systems that advance agroecology and food sovereignty.
Saturday, March 1st: Session 4
Exploring the Potential of Seed Source Transparency and Attribution
Exploring the Potential of Seed Source Transparency and Attribution
Edmund Frost, Common Wealth Seed Growers and Twin Oaks Seed Farm
Sarah Kleeger, Adaptive Seeds
Facilitator: Kiki Elfendahl, Organic Seed Alliance
Seed Source Transparency is the practice of sharing information about where seeds were grown and who grew them. Seed Origin Attribution adds to this by naming others who cared for, created, or synthesized the varieties and strains that are being sold or shared. This session introduces these concepts as tools that can contribute to farmer and community empowerment, and improve the integrity, fairness, functionality and regionality of our seed systems in a number of ways, including by empowering growers, improving seed performance, and preserving seed histories. Presenters will explore how these practices support fair representation, enhance regional adaptability, and strengthen seed company branding. Participants will discuss implementing these values in their own seed systems, introducing the idea of starting an outreach and branding initiative around Seed Source Transparency and Attribution, perhaps drawing from initiatives such as the Safe Seed Pledge or the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) pledge, or Certified Organic itself.
The Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project and/or Reflections on Tending a Story Garden
The Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project
Bonnetta Adeeb, Steam Onward Inc/Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
Chris Keeve, University of Kentucky / Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance / Utopian Seed Project
Justice Madden, Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
LuAnna Nesbitt, Utopian Seed Project, Princeton University
Ira Wallace, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Facilitator: Tessa Lowinske Desmond, Princeton University
For the past two years, the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project (HGP) has been documenting oral histories of people who have been preserving Black and Indigenous seed and foodways throughout the Southeastern U.S. and Appalachia. The Project has documented over 100 stories told by farmers, gardeners, chefs, community organizers, local historians, and others who have been actively sustaining rich farming, culinary, and medicinal traditions. In this session, presenters will share how the collaborating partners from Princeton University, Spelman College, and Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance have worked together to design an oral history project with careful attention to the sensitive nature and urgent need to document these important stories. Participantswill have the opportunity to listen to stories from the HGP archive, learn about oral history methods, and discuss the significance of seed stories and the ethics of documenting and using them in our work.
Heritage Grains – From Seed to Table
Heritage Grains – From Seed to Table
Steve Fry, Fry Family Farm
Brigid Meints, Oregon State University
Chris Hardy, Rogue Valley Heritage Grain Project
Facilitator: Laura Lewis, Organic Seed Alliance
Since 2019, the Rogue Valley Heritage Grain Project has focused on increasing access to seeds of climate resilient, culturally significant food staples in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Grower participation and community education have been the primary focus to engage and train growers to help observe, catalog, source, collect, and share these precious seeds. To date, the Project has one of the most diverse heritage grain “Living Seed Banks” in the Western U.S. thanks to diverse grower participation, from new gardeners to tenured large scale farmers. Significant to the Rogue Valley, 100+ unique varieties of heritage grains and legumes have demonstrated favorable productivity in the region thus improving food security and resilience to a changing climate.
Collaboration Across the Grain Value Chain – Participatory Breeding and a New Variety of Winter Wheat
Collaboration Across the Grain Value Chain – Participatory Breeding and a New Variety of Winter Wheat
Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Andrew Hutchison, Madison Sourdough
John Wepking, Meadowlark Organics
Facilitator: Laura Lewis, Organic Seed Alliance
In the summer of 2024, the foundation seed for a new variety of winter wheat was harvested. That doesn’t sound very exciting until you hear how many people had to carry this project forward, from one student’s PhD, through another’s post-doctorate, a migration from Cornell University to University of Wisconsin-Madison, a group of farmers planting trials, and bake tests performed by professionals across the Midwest and Northeast. Learn about the collaborative journey of developing a new unique wheat variety: a cross between ‘Rouge de Bordeaux’ and the Canadian modern ‘Warthog’ hard red winter wheats that was selected for disease resistance, strong straw, and baking quality, exemplifying the value of cooperation across the grain value chain. This collaboration across the grain value chain has yielded a new variety of wheat that will be valuable to farmers, bakers, and eaters alike.
Grown by Southwest Farmers for Southwest Farmers: Trials and Pipeline for Regionally Adapted, Certified Organic Cover Crop Seed
Grown by Southwest Farmers for Southwest Farmers: Trials and Pipeline for Regionally Adapted, Certified Organic Cover Crop Seed
Dan Hobbs, Pueblo Seed & Food Co.
Rich Pratt, New Mexico State University
Kristin Swoszowski-Tran, Southwest Grain Collaborative
Tim Voss, Southwest Grain Collaborative
Facilitator: Samantha Hilborne-Naluai, Rodale Institute
Over the past several years, the Southwest Grain Collaborative (SGC) and New Mexico State University Cropping Systems Research Program (CSRP) have worked with farmers across the region to revive seed stocks of historically significant Southwest food crops including landrace corn, heirloom beans, and heritage small grains to scale production for emerging market opportunities. With the support of a four-year NIFA Organic Transitions grant, they are now developing drought-tolerant cover crops suitable for livestock forage and limited irrigation using a participatory approach. This session features insights from farmers, researchers, and educators on weed suppression, biomass production, forage quality, seed yield, and adaptability to heat and drought across elevation changes. Attendees will also explore opportunities to establish sustainable, bioregionally focused seed production that is economically viable and ecologically sustainable. Learn from an experienced group of farmers and researchers who are committed to developing regionally adapted cover crop seed, to be grown at scale for commercial distribution, produced by Southwest farmers for Southwest farmers.
The Northeast Seed Network Taking Root: Ecotypes, Ecoregions & Ecological Restoration
The Northeast Seed Network Taking Root: Ecotypes, Ecoregions, and Ecological Restoration
Dina Brewster, Northeast Seed Collective
Sefra Alexandra, The Seed Huntress
The Northeast Seed Network tackles the critical shortage of native seeds for restoring degraded ecosystems. The demand for ecotypic — source-identified, genetically appropriate native plant materials of known provenance — consistently outstrips the available supply. The Ecotype Project trains a new growing cohort of small-scale organic farmers in the specialty crop of restoration seed throughout the Northeast. This has germinated the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective, which includes the Eco59 and Eco84 brands to reference EPA Ecoregion Level III seed provenance. This model of increasing seed literacy by engaging botanists, small-scale farmers, and end-users to make ecotypic seed commercially available is intended to be used as a replicable template for seed networks in North America and around the world. Participants will learn about the Northeast Seed Network Map, a tool enhancing collaboration among diverse stakeholders, and discuss how this replicable model can support ecoregional restoration efforts globally.
Building knowledge between organic seed producers and certifiers
Building Knowledge Between Organic Seed Producers and Certifiers
Connie Karr, Acredited Certifiers Association
Katie Miller, Saltwater Seeds
Facilitator: Jared Zystro, Organic Seed Alliance
Building on the 2024 organic seed producer certifier listening session, this interactive session will allow producers and certifiers to share issues around certification and identify the priority areas where educational materials can be created both to educate certifiers and inspectors about the organic seed production and handling process, and to educate seed producers about the certification process. Attendees will contribute to shaping materials that improve understanding and streamline the process for organic seed certification.
Saturday March 1st: Session 5
Seed Starting 101
Seed Starting 101
Laura Collins, Gaia Herbs
This session, led by experienced organic grower Laura Collins (Gaia Herbs), will provide insights into starting seeds for a market farm. Topics include timing, methods for direct and greenhouse sowing, and seedling care. Collins will also share experiences using various direct-seeding tools and techniques to optimize success in organic farming systems.
Growing seed on a market garden
Growing Seed on a Market Garden
Daniel Brisebois Tourne-Sol Co-operative Farm
Other Speakers TBD
Producing seeds on a market garden allows growers to cultivate seed from plants they already know and value. Join this session to learn about the opportunities, challenges, and best practices of integrating seed production into market gardening.
Seed Academy: Small Bioregional Seed Company Roundtable
Seed Academy: Small Bioregional Seed Company Roundtable
Brian Campbell, Uprising Seeds
Sarah Kleager, Adaptive Seeds
Frank Morton, Wild Garden Seed
Andrew Still, Adaptive Seeds
Don Tipping, Siskiyou Seeds
Facilitator: Jared Zystro, Organic Seed Alliance
Since 2013, the Seed Academy has supported the growth of bioregional seed stewards and companies. This lively session will feature stories from participants leading grassroots initiatives in seed stewardship. Learn how the vanguard of those with their fingers upon the pulse of seed are advancing local food systems and fostering resilient communities.
Challenging Monopoly Control of our Food and Agriculture System
Challenging Monopoly Control of our Food and Agriculture System
Sarah Carden, Farm Action
Kiki Hubbard, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cathleen McCluskey, Organic Seed Alliance
Basel Musharbash, Antimonopoly Counsel
Facilitator: Sarah Carden, Farm Action
Who decides where and what food will be produced, who produces it and how, and who will get to eat it? These decisions have increasingly migrated away from the community level and into the boardrooms of private corporations. Just a handful of companies dominate almost all aspects of food production, and these monopolies prioritize the concentration of ownership, wealth, and power — not the public good. The byproducts of these corporate priorities are farmers’ plummeting share of the food dollar, rising levels of food insecurity and diet-related illness, and ecological degradation. In the seed industry, this level of corporate control has huge implications for seed producers and smaller seed companies, which resonates up the food chain. This panel discussion will present the current state of consolidation in agriculture and use the seed industry as a case study, looking at who controls it and how that impacts seed producers, farmers, and inevitably, consumers. Participants will learn tools and techniques to challenge monopoly power in the seed and food system in their own communities.
Farmer-led Breeding Projects Across Canada
Farmer-led Breeding Projects Across Canada
Craig Boychuck, No Coast Seeds
Dan Brisebois, Tourne-Sol co-operative farm
Evalisa McIllfaterick, Root Cellar Gardens
Chris Sanford, Yonder Hill Farm
Mel Sylvestre, Grounded Acres Organic Farm
Facilitator: Alexis Yamashita, University of Vermont
Organic farmers, breeders, and seed keepers across Canada are diligently working to breed crop varieties tailored to the needs of their local farms, communities, and climates from coast to coast. In the absence of public plant breeding programs for vegetables in Canada, farmers and seed growers are leading the way to develop varieties that are adapted to the diversity of Canadian climates. These farmer-bred varieties are not only being bred for the unique regional growing conditions in Canada, like early maturity for short growing seasons, they represent the vanguard of organic vegetable plant breeding in the country. In this session, farmer-breeders will provide an in-depth discussion on a current breeding project and the regional conditions they are breeding for, covering the intricacies of selection, seed production, and commercialization.
Nourishing seed ancestors, seed workers, and social justice movements
Nourishing Seed Ancestors, Seed Workers, and Social Justice Movements
Leeza Chen, Utopian Seed Project
Nate Kleinman, Experimental Farm Network
Amirah Mitchell, Sistah Seeds, Ira Wallace Seed School
Owen Taylor, Truelove Seeds
Facilitator Chris Keeve, University of Kentucky / Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
This roundtable continues ongoing discussions about the ethics of seed work and the importance of nourishing community-centered social justice through seeds. It will feature a diverse set of perspectives from across the small-scale seed world, including growers and organizers from Truelove Seeds, Experimental Farm Network, Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance, Utopian Seed Project, and the Appalachian Seed Growers Collective. Through a frank and open conversation with the broader seed community, we encourage each other to cultivate our own seed politics in community with other practitioners. Session leaders aspire to hold space for the possibilities of seed work beyond Eurocentric worldviews, embracing community-led racial and economic justice. The discussion will include ethical questions of growing and selling cultural seeds, diasporic and transnational solidarities, environmental justice and regional adaptation, descriptions and naming, germplasm, worker compensation, sustainability practices, and space-making for ancestral seed stories. All seed folks are invited, including non-farmers, to think critically about the relations we all have with seed, and to ask themselves: what does “ethical seed farming” mean to me?
Saturday, March 1st: Session 6
Local Seeds for Local Food: Strengthening Regional Seed Systems for Sustainable Communities
Local Seeds for Local Food: Strengthening Regional Seed Systems for Sustainable Communities
Julia Dakin, Going to Seed
Melissa DeSa, Working Food
Jim Embry, Sustainable Communities Network/Cumberland Seed Commons/Atrus Ballew Farm/Slow Food USA
Nancy Kost, The Buffalo Seed Company
Anna Mieritz, Going to Seed
Facilitator: Edward Johnson, Oregon Tilth
Local seeds are a key component of food sovereignty, environmental resilience, and community empowerment. Leaders from four regional projects will share their experiences creating grassroots seed saving programs that help communities reclaim their power and embrace the joy of truly local food culture. The discussion will delve into strategies for breaking free from commercial seed dependencies, and how this shift enhances genetic diversity, crop adaptability, and better health for humans and the planet. Beyond the agricultural impact, the panel will examine how seed-saving initiatives can catalyze broader community engagement, cultivating a mindset that prioritizes local needs and cultural heritage over market-driven interests. By challenging the commercialization of our food and thought patterns, these initiatives pave the way for truly independent and resilient communities with deeper connections between people, plants, and place.
Listening Session: Seed Grower Education
Listening Session: Seed Grower Education
Lauren Buffaloe-Muscatine, University of California, Davis / Napa County Seed Library
Chris Keeve, University of Kentucky / Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance / Utopian Seed Project
Amirah Mitchell, Sistah Seeds, Ira Wallace Seed School
Facilitator: Chris Smith, Heirloom Collard Project
Organizers from the Ira Wallace Seed School will share their approach to designing accessible seed production education for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) growers. Drawing on feedback from their inaugural cohort, they will present lessons learned and invite attendees to share their own experiences, challenges, and successes in learning seed production. This session fosters discussion on how to make seed education more equitable and inclusive for diverse communities.
Towards a Perennial Paradigm in Agriculture
Towards a Perennial Paradigm in Agriculture
Chris Homanics, Head, Hands, Heart Nursery
Facilitator: Nate Kleinman, Experimental Farm Network
Perennial crops offer numerous benefits, from soil conservation to carbon sequestration, yet annuals dominate modern agriculture. This panel will discuss the importance of shifting the prevailing paradigm in agriculture from annual-based cropping systems to more resilient systems that incorporate perennial crops. This panel will explore advances in breeding and utilizing perennial crops, including vegetables, grains, and fruit trees. Attendees will learn practical strategies for breeding, harvesting and processing, and marketing perennial seeds.
Seed Production Contract Guidelines Presentation and Community Discussion
Seed Production Contract Guidelines Presentation and Community Discussion
Katie Hastings, Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme (UK)
Helena Gonzales, Native Seeds/SEARCH
Joel Johnson, Native Seeds/SEARCH
Facilitator: Heron Breen, Seed Worker Organizing
Members of the Seed Worker Organizing’s Seed Contract Working Group will present the Seed Production Contract Guidelines and share the collaborative process behind its creation. Participants will explore key sections of the document and engage in discussions to provide feedback and suggest improvements, contributing to a dynamic resource for seed growers and producers.
About the Program Participants

Bonnetta Adeeb
Steam Onward Inc | Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance
Bonneta Adeeb
Bonnetta Adeeb, Founder & President of STEAM ONWARD, Inc, a 501(c3) non-profit organization based in Southern Maryland. STEAM ONWARD’s major programs include Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) and Ujamaa Seeds, as well as our Youth Programs in the Environment and Natural Resources. Through our Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance program we recognize the need for increased diversity in farming in general, and diversity in the $15 billion dollar U.S. seed industry in particular. To this end, the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance is working to bridge the gap between prospective growers and seed companies. UJAMAA SEEDS is the entrepreneurial fundraising arm of UCFA. Ujamaa, a Swahili word, means ‘extended family’. As principle of Kwanzaa, ujamaa means ‘cooperative economics’. This principal tasks us to build our own businesses, and control the economics of our communities. As a commodity, seed farming can be a lucrative business opportunity for farmers, gardeners, and growers as demand far outstrips supply. On just a small plot of land, growers can make a profit from seed farming. “At UCFA we are growing BIPOC growers.”

Sefra Alexandra
The Northeast Seed Collective | The Northeast Seed Network | The Ecotype Project
Sefra Alexandra
Sefra Alexandra – The Seed Huntress – is an ethnobotanist on a perennial quest to preserve the biodiversity of our wild and cultivated lands through seed conservation. Sefra leads The Ecotype Project – amplifying the amount of ecoregionally local native seed available for ecological restoration through the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective. In 2020 she began BOATanical Expeditions, ‘paddlin’ for the pollinators,’ planting autochthonous species along riparian corridors. She started the Southport Globe Onion Festival- reviving the prolific allium heirloom in its origin terroir. Sefra has conducted fieldwork around the globe, including fortifying community seed banks on island nations after natural disasters. The Seed Huntress holds her M.A.T. in agroecological education from Cornell University, is the Northeast Bioregional Education Coordinator for the Ecological Health Network, on the steering committee of the Northeast Seed Network, a fellow of the Crop Trust, a WINGS WorldQuest expedition flag carrier & member of the Explorers Club.
Mercy Ambani
Mercy Ambani is a program officer at Seed Savers Network (SSN), a grassroots organization in Kenya with over 86,000 members and 76 community seed banks. She has played a key role in SSN’s growth, focusing on preserving agrobiodiversity and enhancing food security by strengthening community seed systems. Mercy leads a partnership with Kenya’s national genebank to research traditional seed preservation methods and contributes to policy discussions promoting agroecology. She is also a farmer, using her seed bank to train community members. Her work emphasizes women’s leadership in agroecology, advocating for gender equality and building women farmers’ capacity to lead in sustainable agriculture.she has also contributed in coming up with apublication on most efficient methods for traditional seed preservation.

Jennifer Bailey
Systems Transformation Partnership
Jennifer Bailey
Jennifer Bailey’s lifelong passion for history has led her on a spiritual journey of family, and sharing stories of liberation of the Underground Railroad, and connection with the land. With familial roots in farming from both southwestern Ohio, and southwestern Georgia, Jennifer pays respects to her lineage by lifting up the land, food, and community to better know herself and understand her roots.
Jennifer grew up closely tied to the land and natural resources on her family’s multi-generational farm where she worked as part of her family-owned and operated Christmas tree farm, serving you-cut fir trees, as well as farming hogs and sweet corn, to the community. Jennifer worked as an Environmental Educator in the Dominican Republic where she partnered with youth and women’s groups on sustainable community projects with animals, flora, and fauna.
Ken Bezilla
Ken Bezilla has been with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in central Virginia since 2006, growing seed crops and trial crops, and coordinating most of SESE’s seed crop growouts.
Raoudath A. Bouraima
Raoudath is an agronomist, co-founder and President of Les Jardins de l’Espoir, a farmer’s organization supporting agroecology for sustainable food and seed systems. Raoudath is passionate about food and nature preservation and dedicate her professional carrier in promoting healthy food production and consumption for communities. She is currently a PhD candidate in Nutrition and Food Systems with the aim to contribute in finding solutions to current challenges of food insecurity and biodiversity loss. Because farmers are facing the introduction of GMO seeds, weakening their autonomy and therefore the quality of food, the reproduction of our local traditional seeds becomes very important. This should prevent from the privatization of our seeds and give autonomy to produce, exchange or sell our own seeds. Our actions contribute to putting GMOs out of our environment, out of our fields and out of our plates. Seeds are power!
Craig Boychuk
Craig Boychuk is a plant breeder and seed grower working in Treaty 4 Territory near Calder, Saskatchewan. In 2023 he launched No Coast Seeds, a small seed company focused on open pollinated varieties for short-season gardens. Research and experimentation are a big part of the seed work at NCS, through a mix of on-farm and collaborative breeding projects and variety trials. Craig is also a part of Seed Worker Organizing, a group of seed growers investing in knowledge sharing, mutual aid, and advocacy. When he’s not growing vegetable seeds, Craig is working with native plants at Skinner Native Seeds where he helps to grow, collect, and process native wildflower and grass seed crops.

Heron Breen
Seed Worker Organizing
Heron Breen
Heron Breen (he/they) resides in Saint Albans, Maine, and grows seed crops in field & gardens across 2 counties. Heron continues a 25+ year career in seed business. Selection work, plant breeding, seed production, as well as giving away food are primary goals each year. As a participant in Seed Worker Organizing https://seedworkers.org/, Heron enjoys the supportive seed community, and building an intentional & more widely understood and visible seed economy.

Dina Brewster
Northeast Seed Collective
Dina Brewster
Dina Brewster has been a full-time farmer for nearly 20 years. She founded The Hickories as a one-acre vegetable garden and has overseen the development of new products and new acreage as the farm has grown to a 45 acre certified organic fruit, vegetable, cut flower, livestock, and restoration seed business. Dina served as the Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA). While at NOFA, Dina founded The Ecotype Project. She has since founded the Northeast Seed Collective, a seed company housed at her farm that grows and promotes ecotypic seed for habitat restoration. Dina believes we have a responsibility to increase the economic vitality of our regional agrarian economy, improve the long-range ecological stewardship of our land and water, and enliven our cultural commitment to farming.

Dan Brisebois
Tourne-Sol Co-operative Farm
Dan Brisebois
Dan Brisebois has a secret agenda. He wants you to grow seed on your farm! Dan is the author of The Seed Farmer and Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers; and the host of the Seed Farmer podcast. Dan runs the Farmer Spreadsheet Academy and blogs about farming and seeds at www.danbrisebois.com.
Dan is also a founding farmer at Tourne-Sol co-operative farm in Les Cèdres, Quebec. Tourne-Sol grows organic seeds for an online seed store and a wholesale rack program; and grows organic vegetables for 500 weekly veggie baskets.

Charlie Brummer
University of California, Davis
Charlie Brummer
Dr. Brummer is the Director of the Plant Breeding Center and a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He leads the Student Collaborative Organic Plant-breeding and Education (SCOPE) program, which includes several student-led breeding projects on tomato, pepper, common bean, celtuce, spinach, wheat, and zinnia. His program includes cultivar improvement of alfalfa, improving breeding methodologies for outcrossing crops, applying genetic markers to practical plant improvement programs, and using genomics to understand the genetic control of important traits. His program evaluates and incorporates various untapped germplasm sources into breeding populations to expand genetic diversity and introduce new traits. He was President of the Crop Science Society of America in 2017.
Lauren Buffaloe-Muscatine
Lauren Buffaloe–Muscatine is an African American and Indigenous woman whose generational ties in the US date back to 1775. She is a science editor and writer for the University of California–Davis and a former affiliate of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She is the managing editor of the open-access journal San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, a publication she co-founded in 2003. She led a team of internationally based meteorologists to publish the book Atmospheric Rivers in 2020. Lauren co-founded the Napa County Seed Library with her daughter Lavender in 2020 with the mission to grow, save, and share organic, locally adapted seeds to benefit the people of Napa County. Her motivating principle is to freely distribute scientific information. She believes that diversity is the engine of evolvement.

Brian Campbell
Uprising Seeds
Brian Campbell
Brian Campbell, with his partner Crystine Goldberg, is a co-founder of Uprising Seeds- an organic, farm-based retail seed company based in Bellingham, WA. Since 2007 they have worked to strengthen their local food and farming community through seedwork. Guided by principals of seed sovereignty and social justice, they have worked to both increase the availability and quality of organic seeds as well as to bring people together in community, focusing on varieties with rich culinary histories and tradition. They grow the majority of what they sell on approximately 8 leased acres in the Nooksack Valley of NW Washington.

Sarah Carden
Farm Action
Sarah Carden
Sarah Carden joined Farm Action to raise awareness and advocate for policies that meaningfully reform the nation’s food and agriculture system.
Sarah holds a B.A. in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. She has been working on food system reforms for over a decade and brings expertise in local food systems and distribution networks, agriculture, non-profit development, and food entrepreneurship. Sarah has also worked as an organizer on two presidential campaigns and one congressional campaign.
Sarah lives with her husband and their two young children on their organic vegetable farm.
Reiley Carney
Reiley’s first memory of seeds is sitting in her grandparents’ kitchen near Payette, Idaho, separating red clover seeds from chaff on a plate with her grandpa who farmed cover crop seeds. She started working with Snake River Seed Co-op in 2016 as a seed packer and is now the Finance Manager, Inventory Manager, and a proud co-owner of the cooperative! Reiley loves working with seeds and data, so she is fanatical about seed data! She uses her experience as a small-scale seed farmer to assist the Co-op’s farmers and to ensure Snake River has the highest quality seed possible. In her spare time, she enjoys creating and burning art, playing with her 1 year old daughter, gardening (of course!), and camping.

Javier Carrera
Seeds Guardians Network of Ecuador
Javier Carrera
Permacultor. Author, educator and activist. Expert in regenerative systems, with emphasis on food systems. Founder and Social Coordinator of the Seed Guardians Network of Ecuador. Editor of Allpa Magazine. Editor in chief, Madre Semilla Educational Platform, Radio Semilla podcast and Tarpuna video series. Research Director of the first Inventory of Food Heritage of Ecuador. Executive Director, Grupo Allpa Foundation.
Ambar Carvallo Lopez
Ambar is a Ph.D. student in the Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics program at UW-Madison, specializing in organic-adapted tomato breeding for the Midwest. Her research centers on enhancing flavor and disease resistance through participatory breeding, engaging farmers in the selection process to better address organic agriculture needs. As part of the TOMI (Tomato Organic Management Improvement) project, she collaborates with research institutions to develop varieties with improved resilience and fruit quality. In partnership with seed companies, she evaluates new molecular markers for resistance to Septoria leaf spot, a common disease in the Upper Midwest. Recently, she completed a 6-month exchange at INRAE, France, gaining expertise in molecular approaches for flavor improvement. Ambar’s work supports sustainable agriculture by developing tomato varieties tailored to the needs of organic farmers and consumers alike.
Kelli Case
Kelli Case, a Citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, serves as Staff Attorney at the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University (IFAI).
Prior to joining the Initiative, Kelli earned her B.S. in Agribusiness from Oklahoma State University and her J.D. from the University of Tulsa. While in law school, she also completed the Certificate in Native American Law program. During her time in school, Kelli clerked for both the Chickasaw and Pawnee Nation court systems where she spent time immersed in tribal codes and working to improve the lives of tribal citizens.

Leeza Chen
Utopian Seed Project
Leeza Chen
Leeza Chen is a seed farmer and traditional plant breeder based in Western North Carolina. She believes deeply in on-farm, regionally adapted seed selection as a tool of social and climate resiliency. It is important to her to honor the legacy of Appalachian seed saving and organizing by promoting education and opportunity for her fellow Southern seed keepers. Leeza has been working with the Utopian Seed Project for over 3 years and is a founding member of the Appalachian Seed Growers Collective.

Laura Collins
Gaia Herbs
Laura Collins
Laura Collins is a Certified Organic diversified vegetable grower from the Carolinas. Being mostly self-taught, she worked under a farmer mentor for several years and has attended dozens of farm conferences and workshops. She currently leads the vegetable program at Gaia Herbs which provides vegetables to their employees and donates around 9,000 pounds of vegetables annually.
Gina Covina
Gina Covina has been selling seeds she grows since 2009, starting from a home garden. In 2015 she moved to her current farm in northern CA in partnership with Sorren. Open Circle Seeds grows more than 100 seed crops every year, selecting for vigor, flavor, productivity, and for resilience under increasing climate stresses. These seeds are sold online, in store racks, and in bulk amounts to other seed companies (sometimes as contract grows). Open Circle Seeds is certified organic and sells only seeds grown on the farm.

Almendra Cremaschi
Bioleft; University of San Martín
Almendra Cremaschi
Almendra Cremaschi is a researcher and associate professor at the University of San Martín, Argentina, specializing in sustainability transitions and agri-food systems. She co-founded and directs Bioleft, a community-driven laboratory dedicated to open-source seed breeding and exchange. Bioleft aims to democratize plant breeding by supporting participatory practices that involve farmers directly in adapting seeds to meet the demands of diverse, localized conditions. Its co-designed digital platform promotes open science, enabling transparent exchange of data and knowledge. As a member of the Global Open-Source Seeds Initiative, Bioleft operates under principles of seed commons, treating seeds as shared resources rather than proprietary assets. Bioleft’s work is geared toward creating resilient, biodiversity-rich food systems that are adapted to local ecosystems and less reliant on corporate-controlled seed markets. Cremaschi’s work bridges academic research and real-world application, advocating for collaborative approaches to ecological and just agri-food systems.

Julia Dakin
Going to Seed
Julia Dakin
Julia Dakin is the co-founder of Going to Seed, an organization dedicated to shifting agriculture towards adaptation, community and diversity. For several years she has been working in community-driven projects that build resilient, locally adapted food systems, enhancing community resilience and food diversity. She is on the Seed Library Network organizing team, and started a community seed library in Northern California.

Michelle Dang
SeedChange
Michelle Dang
Michelle is the Research Coordinator at the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, a program of SeedChange. In this work, she collaborates the University of British Columbia, farmers, and researchers to run the Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (CANOVI), a national vegetable variety trial and plant breeding network for organic and ecological vegetable farmers. Through CANOVI, Michelle hopes to develop more capacity to efficiently organize participatory research networks, contextualize agronomic data to be of use/value to farmers and seed growers, and support growers to build skills in variety trialling, seed production, and plant breeding. Outside of this work, Michelle co-runs an urban farm, Xa Lát Farm, specializing in growing flowers and Asian vegetables for local markets. Through her time both in the lab and the field, Michelle is especially passionate about how researchers can support farmers in making agriculture more farmer-led, ecological, sustainable, and accessible. (she/her, Toronto/Tkaronto)
Julie Dawson
Julie Dawson is a Professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, training students in the plant breeding and plant genetics, horticulture, and agroecology graduate fields. Research interests include the use of genetic resources in plant breeding for organic systems and methods for participatory selection and variety development. She is also the state Extension specialist for regional food systems and does applied research for growers serving local food markets. She leads a project called the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative, which works with plant breeders to test varieties with farmers, gardeners, chefs and other culinary professionals. She is an academic cooperator with the USDA on the Farmer Seed Liaison initiative, focused on promoting fair competition and innovation in the seed industry.

Carol Deppe
Open Source Seed Initiative
Carol Deppe
Oregon plant breeder Carol Deppe holds a PhD in Biology/Genetics (Harvard University). “At least I think I have a Phud from Harvard,” Deppe says. “But when I got the diploma it was in Latin, so who knows?” She focuses on breeding plants for superior flavor, organic adaptation, resilience to wild weather and climate change, and human survival for the next thousand years, and in teaching others to do likewise. She has bred 20+ varieties of corn, legumes, and squash, all released as Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) Pledged varieties. Deppe is author of Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving 2nd ed.; The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times; The Tao of Vegetable Gardening; and “Freelance Plant Breeding,” Plant Breeding Reviews (2022). Deppe is Chair of the Board of Directors of OSSI.

Melissa DeSa
Working Food
Melissa De Sa
Melissa is a seed steward, artist, educator, and ecologist based in Gainesville, Florida. As the Seed Program Director and co-founder of Working Food, a non-profit launched in 2012, she focuses on preserving regional seed biodiversity through community seed banking, crop research, seed saving, and education. Her collaborative work connects with a diverse range of groups including adults with disabilities, youth, farmers, gardeners, students, and researchers, helping cultivate a resilient local and regional food community – starting with the seed! Melissa helped form, organize, and facilitate the emerging Heirloom Collard Project and continues to play a role in keeping it growing and evolving.

Aabir Dey
SeedChange
Aabir Dey
Aabir Dey is the Director of SeedChange’s Canadian field program, The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security. Aabir developed his passion for seeds while working at Everdale Farm, where he helped Seeds of Diversity Canada grow their Great Canadian Garlic Collection. He completed a Master of Environmental Studies at York University, researching organic seed systems in Ontario, before joining SeedChange. Aabir has been instrumental in shaping and leading the Bauta Initiative’s training, research, and policy programs. Aabir is thrilled to be working with seed producers and farmers all over Canada to advance farmer-led seed systems and support seed sovereignty across the country.

Jim Embry
Sustainable Communities Network/Cumberland Seed Commons/Atrus Ballew Farm/Slow Food USA
Jim Embry
Sacred Earth Activist
Published with Humans & Nature Press
Jim Embry considers himself Stardust condensed in human form that represents billions of years of Earth’s evolution. As an evolutionary being, his purpose is to contribute to a paradigm shift towards Sacred Earth consciousness and refers to himself as a Sacred Earth Activist. As an activist, Jim has participated in most of the major social justice movements of his era and now believes that the sustainability movement encompasses all the other movements. As founder and director of Sustainable Communities Network, Jim contributes to the theory and practice of sustainable living while cultivating collaborative efforts at the local, national, and international levels with a focus on food systems.
Jim is at home at every level, whether as a six-time USA delegate to Slow Food’s Terra Madre in Italy, a visitor to Cuba to study organic farming, extensive work in urban agriculture, or planting on his 30-acre farm. Jim maintains that the local food and sustainable agriculture movement is the foundation of a sustainable community. As a scuba diver and photographer, Jim has traveled widely to capture the beauty of the land and oceans. He has exhibited his photos in books, hospitals, galleries, and magazines. Working now on two books, Jim has contributed articles and photographs to We Are Each Other’s Harvest, Sustainable World Source Book, Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, Kentucky African American Encyclopedia, Latino Studies, Biodynamics Journal, African American Heritage Guide, Stella Natura and other publications. Jim believes that we need some big ideas that connect humans in a sacred relationship with the Earth and Cosmos, which will require us to think not just “out of the box” but “out-of-the-barn”.

Steve Etka
National Organic Coalition
Steve Etka
Steve is the owner of Etka Consulting, a government relations consulting firm specializing in agriculture and food policy reform. He serves as the Policy Director for several policy-related coalitions, including the National Organic Coalition.
Prior to forming his consulting business, Steve spent 5½ years on the staff of U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) serving as Deputy Legislative Director, specializing in agriculture, environment, transportation and appropriations matters.
Steve graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1987. He lives with his husband Troy in Alexandria, Virginia and is the father of three and a grandfather, as well.

Emily Fratz
Cornell University
Emily Fratz
Emily Fratz is a PhD student in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University, where she’s currently working on dry bean breeding. Emily has a particular interest in participatory methods and engaging growers in the research process, as well as the intersection of social science and plant breeding research. Emily was previously an organic vegetable farmer and worked in urban agriculture and education.

Edmund Frost
Common Wealth Seed Growers and Twin Oaks Seed Farm
Edmund Frost
Edmund Frost grows seeds and does research and breeding work at Twin Oaks Seed Farm in Central Virginia. He leads a cooperative retail seed company called Common Wealth Seed Growers, and has grown seeds on contract for various other seed companies since 2008. Disease resistance breeding in cucumbers, squash and melons has been a central focus of his work. He is passionate about contributing to the organic and regional seed movement. Recently this has taken the form of participation in Seed Worker Organizing, and in their project to envision better contract terms and frameworks for seed growers.

Steve Fry
Fry Family Farm
Steve Fry
Steve and Suzanne Fry started farming 1/2 acre of certified organic Vegetables and flowers 35 years ago. Today we farm 100+ acres of mixed vegetables, flowers and ancient and heritage grains. We started farming with 5 girls, a 285 Massey and a 4 ft tiller. Our dream was to quit our day job and become a sole source, farm income family. Today we have 2 daughters and son in-law who are on a path to continue the farm. We have added a CSA, Farm Store, Food Hub with local and regional sales. As we continue to supply healthy nutritious , organic produce, we’ve added heritage and ancient grains to our land rotation. So now we’re milling flour and selling our ancient and heritage grain flour to our farm store and local bakeries.

Pryor Garnett
Garnetts Red Prairie Farm
Pryor Garnett
Pryor Garnett is a beginning farm growing certified organic grains (wheat, rye, triticale, barley, etc.) on a 92 acre farm in Sheridan, Oregon. Garnetts Red Prairie Farm is located where the Willamette Valley floor begins to rise into the foothills of the Coast Range. He began farming in 2016 after retiring from practicing patent law for over thirty years, mostly with IBM. From the beginning he has used only certified organic practices on the farm, and his crops have been certified organic by Oregon Tilth since 2016. Pryor supports organic farmers and consumers by volunteering with the Organic Farmers Association and the Oregon Organic Coalition, and is a member of the Oregon Farm Bureau. He regularly meets with elected officials and their staff in Washington, D.C. and Oregon to advocate for the further development of organic agriculture and the organic food system.
Protecting and restoring farmland is critically important – in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and everywhere else. A farm’s soil is its most important asset, and Garnetts Red Prairie Farm relies on cover cropping, residue retention, minimum tillage, crop rotation and erosion prevention to build soil fertility and resilience. It is a 2017 Flagship Farm of the Oregon Bee Project, and has 3/4 mile of pollinator-friendly hedgerows as well as extensive Oregon white oak woods, and a year-round creek. Pryor has been an elected director of the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District since 2020, and has advocated for sustained and increased funding of conservation programs.

Rue Genger
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rue Genger
Rue Genger is a scientist in the Urban and Regional Food Systems research group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They work with the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative to support growers, plant breeders, and chefs in developing and selecting flavorful vegetable varieties adapted to Upper Midwest growing conditions, with the goal of building a resilient regional seed system that serves the needs of Midwest farmers. Rue facilitates the Climate Resilient Organic Vegetable Production (CROVP) community of farmers, researchers and extension educators committed to farmer-led research into reduced tillage and other resilient vegetable production systems.
Marvin Gómez
Marvin Gómez is a technical advisor for SeedChange in Honduras on participatory research and plant genetic resources in Honduras. Marvin has been working with SeedChange and the Foundation for Participatory Research with Honduran Farmers (FIPAH) for over a decade advancing farmer-led seed systems and participatory on-farm research for diversified, agro-ecological farmers in Honduras. Marvin has a MSc in Sustainable Tropical Agriculture from Escuela Agrícola Panamericana at Universidad Zamorano, where he studied the conservation and development of maize plant genetic resources with a focus on phenotyping and genotyping for biotic and abiotic stress on maize and beans and the development of heterogeneous populations through participatory plant breeding.

Helena Gonzales
Native Seeds/SEARCH
Helena Gonzales
Helena Gonzales (she/her) graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelors in Plant Science with a focus in genetics, genomics, and propagation. Born and raised in Tucson, she is Hopi and Navajo. Helena has dedicated her life to crop conservation and research to preserve the diversity and the history of heirloom crops. She uses this knowledge at Native Seeds/SEARCH to maintain seeds in the seed bank, work in the Conservation Garden, and process seeds in the Seed Lab.

K Greene
Hudson Valley Seed Co / HV Farm Hub
K Greene
K Greene is a seed being. And so are you. K’s seed journey began twenty years ago when they created the first seed library in a public library. Over time, Greene and their partner Doug Muller turned the library into the Hudson Valley Seed Company — a national seed company focused on the art, culture, and improvement of open-pollinated and organic seed. Greene also created the Seed Growing Program at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub where they partner with Indigenous and cultural organizations to support seed rematriation and sovereignty work including with the Mohawk community in Akwesasne, Jewish Farming Network, Under the Husk, and Palestine Heirloom Seed Library. Along with these seed relationships, Greene is developing a non-binary approach to botany, rooted in queer ecology, to question and reimagine how we relate to plants and participate in generational seed cycles. Greene continues to teach seed saving skills and enjoys bonding with new plants every season.

Solveig Hanson
Cornell University / Cover Crop Breeding Network
Solveig Hanson
Solveig joined Virginia Moore’s Sustainable Cropping Systems Breeding Lab at Cornell University in January 2023, where she coordinates research and outreach for the nationwide Cover Crop Breeding Network. As leader of the CCB Network winter pea breeding program, Solveig coordinates on-farm breeding nurseries and has initiated participatory variety trials on 70 farms and gardens. Solveig received her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding Plant Genetics from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020, where she conducted genetic, genomic, and participatory research focused on flavor in table beet. In a subsequent postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, she coordinated a Canada-wide farmer variety trialing network and led participatory breeding efforts in carrot.
Chris Hardy
Chris has sought a new direction for agriculture since he began farming over 20 years ago. In 2014, he founded Hardy Seeds to continue the work his grandfather inspired in him, and oversees a diversity of heritage grains, herbs, and vegetable seeds. His extensive travels abroad have kept his passion high for cultural diversity, regenerative farming and community engagement.
He initiated the historic campaign in Southern Oregon to ban genetically engineered (GMO) crops to protect traditional seeds from the threat of contamination. For most of his life he has advocated for local farms, organized regional seed swaps and been active with farm to school programs. In 2019, Chris founded the Rogue Valley Heritage Grain Project to increase access to pre-industrial seeds of climate resilient food staples.

Katie Hastings
Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme (UK)
Katie Hastings
Katie Hastings is the Wales Coordinator for the Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme. Her work to build a more diverse and resilient seed system includes supporting Wales’s first ever seed selling cooperative, the Wales Seed Hub. Katie works with a group of farmers to revive rare Welsh oats, in particular, the almost extinct Welsh black oat. Having worked as a market gardener and a community food organiser, Katie is passionate about diverse seed being the foundation of a healthy food system.

William Hazzard
University of California, Davis
William Hazzard
William Hazzard is a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Davis in the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group. His research primarily focuses on epigenetic disorders in almonds. He is also the project lead for the zinnia breeding program as part of the Student Organic Plant Breeding and Education project, a student lead breeding program. Before starting graduate school, William worked as a legislative aide to Senator Maria Cantwell, where he specialized in agriculture policy. He is a graduate of Colgate University with a BA in French and Political Science.
Samantha Hilborn-Naluai
Samantha (Sam) is the New Mexico Organic Farm Consultant at the Rodale Institute, helping farmers to become certified organic and provide organic education across the Southwest. She grew up in New Mexico and is from the Pueblos of Laguna and Acoma. Samantha has a M.S. in Horticulture and Agronomy with a specialization in plant breeding from UC Davis. She is based out of northern New Mexico.

Dan Hobbs
Pueblo Seed & Food Co.
Dan Hobbs
Dan Hobbs is a fifth generation Coloradan and a first generation farmer. He worked with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union as a rural cooperative development specialist for many years and grows certified organic heritage grains, legumes, open pollinated seeds, varietal garlic and chile peppers on 30 irrigated acres in McElmo Canyon, located in the Four Corners region. He and partner, Nanna Meyer, operate a vertically integrated enterprise that includes seed cleaning, milling and baking in Cortez, Colorado. Their business is Pueblo Seed and Food Company.

Beth Hoinacki
Goodfoot Farm
Beth Hoinacki
Beth Hoinacki lives at Goodfoot Farm, a certified Biodynamic and organic diversified market farm in the Coastal foothills of the mid-Willamette Valley, where she farms full time and wholeheartedly. Over the past decade the farm has taught her to pay as much attention to the people with whom she works as she does the farm and the market they serve. It is her belief that focusing on the relationships between and among the people in our farm and food systems is critical for success in playing the long game of supporting Life on Earth.
Chris Homanics
A sense of childhood spirit has led Chris Homanics to fully embrace the diverse mosaic of experiences the natural world offers. Searching for a year-around sustainable diet, he has traveled collecting and preserving a menagerie of bioregionally adapted fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
A plant breeder at heart, he is working with a wide variety of crop species including colorful potatoes, high-protein orange corn, perennial onions, perennial kale, apples, pears, peaches, chestnuts, walnuts… Head, Hands, Heart Nursery and Seed curates a favorite selection of these.
Vice President of the North American Fruit Explorers (nafex.org) and a co-founder of the Agrarian Sharing Network (agrariansharing.net). He has spoke on a variety of topics related to fruit exploring, agriculture, horticulture, plant breeding, wildcrafting, and more. He is a devoted husband to his wife Elham and his two children Lilia and Rosemary.
The only viable future is to be in full relationship with the land.

Kiki Hubbard
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kristina (Kiki) Hubbard
Kristina (Kiki) Hubbard is an Outreach Program Manager in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her position supports UW-Madison’s academic collaboration with the USDA’s Farmer Seed Liaison initiative, which aims to help growers navigate a complex seed system, including connecting them with antitrust regulators, intellectual property administrators, and other federal partners. Kiki has more than 20 years of experience in seed policy as an organizer, researcher, and writer on projects involving antitrust, biotechnology, intellectual property, and organic regulation. Before joining UW-Madison, Kiki held positions with Organic Seed Alliance, National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Rural Affairs, Organization for Competitive Markets, and other agricultural groups. She received an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and is currently an affiliate faculty member in the same program. Kiki lives in Missoula, Montana, with her husband and son.

Scott Hucker
Great Lakes Staple Seeds
TK
TK
Andrew Hutchison
Andrew Hutchison is the James Beard Semi-Finalist owner and head baker of Madison Sourdough, dedicated to crafting bread and pastry from regional small grains.

Paulina Jenney
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Paulina Jenney
Paulina Jenney is an Outreach Program Manager with the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, where she supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Seed Liaison Initiative. She is co-author of USDA’s 2023 report, More and Better Choices for Farmers: Promoting Fair Competition and Innovation in Seeds and Other Agricultural Inputs. Born and raised in the desert southwest, Paulina earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and creative writing from the University of Arizona before spending several years learning about traditional and small scale agricultural techniques from practitioners around the world. She has worked for the Institute of the Environment, Conservation International – Perú, and taught English and environmental stewardship as a Fulbright grantee in northern Spain. She earned her M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Montana, where she managed the PEAS Farm seed garden and studied plant breeder perspectives on intellectual property rights.

Joel Johnson
Native Seeds/SEARCH
Joel Johnson
Joel Johnson serves as the Farm Manager at Native Seeds/SEARCH—a nonprofit seedbank based in Tucson, AZ that grows, preserves, and distributes over 1,000 varieties of arid-adapted crop seeds and wild crop relatives. Joel was born and raised in Tucson and studied Sustainable Agriculture at Messiah College. He has led Native Seeds/SEARCH’s in-house seed production and farm expansion since 2020. He also provides writing and editing support for human-scale farms and farmers around the country.

John Kariuki Mwangi
Slow Food Kenya
John Kariuki Mwangi
I am a farmer and the coordinator of Slow Food Kenya. My years of professional experience includes representing Youth and Africa at Slow Food International, administration and coordination of development projects in sustainable agriculture, education and socio-cultural sector with the aim of preserving food biodiversity, agroecology and cultural identities of communities.
A member of Slow Food International council with a deep understanding of the complexity of the world, the centrality of food to all cultures and the integral role that small-scale farmers play in feeding the world.
I believe that the global push by seed companies to control the entire seed sector by adoption GMOs and hybrids poses a threat to African food sovereignty. Addressing the challenges facing the seed system calls for collaboration with farmers at the centre because the real solutions are in their hands and in farmers’ managed seed systems. Enhancing production of organic seeds is fundamental.

Erica Kempter
Nature & Nurture Seeds
Erica Kempter
Erica Kempter has been an organic gardener & farmer for nearly 30 years. She is also an educator, food justice advocate, seed steward and plant breeder. She is co-owner, of Nature & Nurture Seeds, a farm-based seed company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan that provides quality, resilient, and adapted seeds for diverse farms and gardens in the Midwest and North. Erica’s biggest passion is breeding tomatoes and she loves to witness (and taste!) the magic that unfolds though her plant breeding goals are more practical – to breed open-pollinated, vigorous, flavorful and disease resistant tomatoes for the Midwest.

Sarah Kleeger
Adaptive Seeds
Sarah Kleeger
Sarah Kleeger has worked on organic farms since 2003. In 2006, she & her husband, Andrew Still, started The Seed Ambassadors Project, promoting seed stewardship locally and internationally through seed swaps, seed saving workshops, and the distribution of rare and heritage varieties of seeds. In 2009 they started Adaptive Seeds, a farm-based seed company, as a way to further distribute the varieties they had collected with The Seed Ambassadors Project. Adaptive Seeds offers organic, open-pollinated, diverse and resilient seed varieties, and we grow more than 75% of the varieties we sell. Sarah’s roles at Adaptive Seeds include management of both the fields & the finances, and she is happiest when she is tending crops or hanging out with her cats. Adaptive Seeds is located near Sweet Home, Oregon, two hours south of Portland.

Nate Kleinman
Experimental Farm Network
Nate Kleinman
Nate Kleinman is a farmer, plant breeder, activist, and co-founder of Experimental Farm Network (EFN), a Philadelphia-based non-profit started in 2013 to facilitate collaborative research in sustainable agriculture and plant breeding, especially toward the development of perennial staple crops for carbon sequestration. A founding member of Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA), he serves as co-coordinator of UCFA’s Seed and Farming Operations Working Group and its Policy Working Group. Nate is an executive board member with Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) and a technical service provider with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ). He is also a founding community partner of The Seed Farm at Princeton University. Through working with perennial crops, he aims to help shift our farming system from being a driver of climate change to being a weapon against it. Nate lives and farms on Nanticoke & Lenape land in southern New Jersey.
Nancy Kost
Nancy is originally from the Altiplano of Bolivia, where she grew up in a sustainable farming system that has been practiced for centuries, long before the Inca Empire. Her upbringing involved cultivating quinoa, potatoes, and raising llamas, which sparked her deep connection to resilient agricultural practices. Nancy later pursued a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy at Earth University in Costa Rica, followed by a Master of Science in Tomato Breeding from The Ohio State University. With extensive farming experience across the Americas, Nancy has honed her expertise in seed systems, agricultural sustainability, and ecological adaptation. Her work, alongside her partner Matthew, blends traditional wisdom with modern scientific approaches to agricultural innovation. Nancy is also the proud mother of two young children, Silveria and Thomas, who are integral to her family’s journey.
Mike Levine
Mike Levine has built a lifelong career exploring and cultivating edible plants, focusing on gardening, farming, and ecological restoration since 1992. A graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, Mike began his journey with Ann Arbor’s Natural Area Preservation Division, restoring city parks. He later co-directed Project Grow Community Gardens and worked on organic farms and nurseries in the Ann Arbor area. Inspired by shiitake cultivation during permaculture studies at The Farm in Tennessee and later deepening his knowledge with Paul Stamets in Washington, Mike developed a passion for mushrooms and sustainable farming.
Currently, Mike is the operations manager, education manager, and host of Nature and Nurture Farm, where he welcomes interns, volunteers, campers, friends, and U-M class field trips. He has hosted multiple U-M SEAS MS projects, the most recent on managing the farm’s natural areas. Mike steers the farm’s long-term vision, cooks farm-to-table lunches, and excels at seeing big-picture patterns. Dedicated to promoting health, sustainability, and good food, Mike strives to create meaningful connections between people, nature, and delicious, nutritious meals. He also cares for two beautiful blue merle Australian Mountain Dogs, Kiwi and Pawpaw.

Veronica Limeberry
Native Seeds/SEARCH, Northern Arizona University
Veronica Limeberry
Veronica Limeberry is a postdoctoral research fellow through an NSF-SBE grant examining community food systems, especially with Indigenous and low-income rural peoples, in the desert southwest and central Appalachia. She has conducted research on agrobiodiversity’s role in advancing territorial sovereignty with communities in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, India, and the US. Veronica has consulted for policies supporting farmers’ rights and Indigenous food systems at the global, national, and local levels. She has long advocated for food sovereignty in Appalachia (and beyond), sits on the board for Highlander Research and Education Center in East TN, and holds a PhD in International Relations from American University School of International Service. She has published research in Frontiers of Sustainable Food Systems, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, and Droits & Cultures.

Tessa Lowinske Desmond
The Seed Farm at Princeton University
Tessa Lowinske Desmond
Tessa Lowinske Desmond is a scholar and a farmer. She is a research specialist focusing on food and agriculture at Princeton University in the School of Public and International Affairs. Desmond directs The Seed Farm at Princeton, co-leads the Princeton Food Project, and serves as Co-Principal Investigator for the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project. Desmond’s work is interdisciplinary, using the tools of oral history and community-engaged methods to document the ways in which food and farming serve as carriers of culture and to understand the role that food has played in racial, ethnic, and social identity for generations. Much of Desmond’s current work deals specifically with seeds, seed stories, and the way that narratives attached to seeds carry history and important cultural lessons.

Justice Madden
Ujamaa Farming Cooperative Alliance
Justice Madden
Justice Madden is a storyteller, facilitator, and organizer focused on preserving Black agrarian traditions, uplifting narratives of resilience, and building community capacity through land-based practices. An active member of the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance, she also previously served as the Graduate Program Manager for the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project. Currently, she works as the Project Manager at the Center for Cultural Landscapes at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, where she supports the Mellon-funded Out(sider) Preservation Initiative.

Cathleen McCluskey
Organic Seed Alliance
Cathleen McCluskey
Cathleen McCluskey is the Advocacy & Communications director for Organic Seed Alliance. She leads the organization’s legal and cultural advocacy work developing policies that support organic agriculture and farmers’ rights to save seed. Cathleen co-directs OSA’s State of Organic Seed project and leads federal policy initiatives targeting Congress and federal agencies. Her research focuses on seed systems, intellectual property, market concentration, germplasm management and diversity, data access and transparency, and democratization of science and knowledge. Cathleen holds a PhD in Environment and Resources and an MS in Agroecology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Evalisa McIllfaterick
Root Cellar Gardens
Evalisa McIllfaterick
Evalisa works with plants and seeds in her role as a market gardener and seed producer at Root Cellar Gardens. What began as a desire to support food security in her community has grown and evolved (thanks in large part to seeds) into a deep appreciation of and curiosity about the role that seeds play in our lives. Most recently this curiosity led her to complete a Master’s thesis exploring the way that the seed-human relationships impact health through their impacts on individuals, societies and environments. Evalisa is currently engaged in multiple collabortive landrace breeding projects.

Brigid Meints
Oregon State University
Dr. Brigid Meints
Dr. Brigid Meints is an Assistant Professor of Practice and the Organic Grains and Pulses Extension Specialist with the OSU Center for Small Farms & Community Food Systems. She is interested in organic weed and pest management, breeding for organic systems, and working with growers to add a value-added small grain crop to their rotation. Additionally, her research focuses on breeding multi-use naked barley for organic systems and early maturing dry beans for western Oregon. She grew up in Corvallis, OR and developed a love for plants at a young age. She earned a BA from Scripps College in Anthropology and Gender & Women’s Studies but found her way back to plants after graduation when she began working for the barley breeding program at OSU. She earned her MS from OSU in Crop Science with a focus in Plant Breeding & Genetics and completed her PhD in Crop Science at Washington State University.

Anna Mieritz
Going to Seed
Anna Bonner Mieritz
Anna Bonner Mieritz is a designer, facilitator, and life-long gardener. As a co-founder of the nonprofit Going to Seed, she organizes their Seed Share Program, which gathers seeds from growers around the country, packages them into genetically diverse mixes by species, and distributes them to jumpstart crop adaptation projects. She lives in Moss Beach, California, where she also volunteers in the food distribution programs at Coastside Hope, and the HEAL Project educational farm.

Frank Morton
Wild Garden Seed
Frank Morton
Frank and Karen Morton grow seed in Philomath, OR and operate Wild Garden Seed, serving gardeners, farmers, and seed catalogs for 30 years. Their own catalog sells only seed they grow themselves, and features original farm-bred varieties of vegetables and flowers, as well as heirlooms and commercial workhorse varieties.

Basel Musharbash
Antimonopoly Counsel
Basel Musharbash
Basel is an antitrust and trade regulation attorney with a passion for building stronger towns and vibrant rural economies.
Basel’s experience includes representing farmers in litigation against meat processors under the Packers and Stockyards Act, defending workers and entrepreneurs against employers who seek to enforce illegal noncompete agreements, and advocating for the interests of farmers, small businesses, workers and consumers in proceedings at the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Basel is also the author of the landmark report on the state of competition in America’s agriculture system, “”Kings Over the Necessaries of Life: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System,” which was commissioned and published by Farm Action in 2024.
LuAnna Nesbitt
LuAnna Nesbitt, an Appalachian agrarian and community organizer, is passionate about revolutionizing regional food systems. Having earned a master’s degree in Food Systems from the University of Vermont, she combines her regional seed research with practical experience. Currently, she holds the position of Project Manager for the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project and Co-Farm Manager at the Utopian Seed Project. Through these roles, LuAnna actively contributes to the preservation of Appalachian agricultural heritage and the safeguarding of regional agro-biodiversity.

Marissa Nix
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Marissa Nix
Marissa Nix is a Research Specialist in the Urban and Regional Food System Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative, she works on participatory plant breeding alongside plant breeders, seed companies, farmers, gardeners, and chefs to develop region-specific varieties that deliver great flavor. Growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Marissa discovered her passion for plants while volunteering at a community garden. With a background in genetics, she believes plant breeding is important to adapt to climate change and provide sustainable, organic food for her community.

Emily Pence
Fedco Seeds
Emily Pence
Emily Pence works directly with contract seed growers through her role at Fedco Seeds, a Maine-based worker/consumer-owned cooperative specializing in gardening, farming, and orcharding supplies from warehouses in Clinton, Maine. She also coordinates Fedco’s variety trials. Previously, she apprenticed on, and managed several organic mixed vegetable farms in Minnesota, New York, and Maine.

Rich Pratt
New Mexico State University
Rich Pratt
Rich Pratt is a professor in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University. He also serves as the Director of the Cropping Systems Research Innovation Program. His current research emphasis is on heat and drought-tolerant cover crops, participatory plant breeding, and the exploration and collection of wild bean germplasm.

Laura Roser
UC Davis
Laura Roser
Laura Roser (she/her) is a staff coordinator for the Student Collaborative Organic Plant breeding Education (SCOPE) program, a student-led collaborative of faculty and student plant breeders based out of the UC Davis Student Farm that works with local organic growers on improving crop varieties for organic farming systems in California. She manages the internship program and the zinnia, tomato, pepper, celtuce, and wheat breeding programs. She graduated from UC Davis in 2019 with a B.S. in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Outside of work, she loves to knit and crochet!

Chris Sanford
Yonder Hill Farm
Chris Sanford
Chris Sanford and her partner, Garrett Lauten, steward over 200 varieties of vegetable, herb, grain & flower seeds – including many rare & regionally significant varieties. Their expanding farm-produced offerings include seed garlic, sunchokes, willow whips, & grafted fruit trees. They have been farming & gardening ecologically for over 20 years, producing seeds commercially since 2009. Since 2011, they have been very busy restoring the heritage barn, establishing gardens, and raising their 3 children at their diversified homestead in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Chris holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Fine Art and a Master’s of Science in Sustainable Systems.

Vivien Sansour
Palestine Heirloom Seed Library
Vivien Sansour
Vivien Sansour is an artist, researcher, and writer. She uses installations, images, sketches, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for seed conservation and the protection of agrobiodiversity as a cultural/political act. Vivien founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library in 2014, where she works with farmers in Palestine and around the world to preserve ancestral seeds and biocultural knowledge. Her work as an artist, scholar, and writer has been showcased internationally. Vivien was most recently the Distinguished Artistic Fellow in Experimental Humanities at Bard College, and is currently the Executive Director of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library.

Samuel Scheidt
Saltwater Seeds
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Pratap Shrestha
SeedChange
Pratap Shrestha
Pratap is a Program Specialist in Seed Systems and Plant Genetic Resources at SeedChange. He has a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in participatory technology development and local knowledge systems from the University of Wales, UK. Pratap has been working in agricultural research and development for nearly 30 years, particularly on participatory crop improvement, seed systems, community-based approaches to biodiversity conservation, and policy. Pratap also led the development of SeedChange’s innovative Seed Security Assessment methodology. Pratap is passionate about working with farmers and supporting policies that protect their rights and livelihoods.

Chris Smith
Heirloom Collard Project
Chris Smith
Chris Smith is executive director of the Utopian Seed Project, a crop-trialing nonprofit working to celebrate food and farming. Within this work, Smith collaborates on the Heirloom Collard Project, hosts a seasonal Trial to Table event series, and publishes Crop Stories, a crop-specific multimedia project. Smith’s book, The Whole Okra, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2020, and he is the co-host of “The Okra Pod Cast.” In 2023 Smith received the Organic Educator Award from the Organic Growers School and was named a Champion of Conservation by Garden & Gun. Find more information at utopianseed.org

Eva Steinberg
Heirloom Collard Project
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Andrew Still
Adaptive Seeds
Andrew Still
Andrew Still began working on organic farms in 2003. In 2006, he & his wife, Sarah Kleeger, started The Seed Ambassadors Project to promote seed stewardship locally and internationally through seed swaps, seed saving workshops, and the distribution of rare and heritage varieties of seeds. In 2009 they started Adaptive Seeds, a farm-based seed company, as a way to further distribute the varieties they had collected with The Seed Ambassadors Project. Adaptive Seeds offers organic, open-pollinated, diverse and resilient seed varieties for ecologically-minded farmers, gardeners, and seed savers. Andrew’s roles at Adaptive Seeds include management of both the seed collection and plant breeding projects.

Kristin Swoszowski-Tran
Southwest Grain Collaborative
Kristin Swoszowski-Tran
Kristin Swoszowski-Tran is the owner/operator of Ledoux Grange, an organic-certified, diversified farm high in the mountains of Mora, New Mexico, raising produce and yak. A multiple grant recipient, she explores novel methods and is a dedicated, intentional producer for local food systems and regenerative agriculture. Kristin is a farmer/producer member of the Southwest Grain Collaborative who grows/trials grains, pulses and landrace seeds.

Mel Sylvestre
Grounded Acres Organic Farm
Mel Sylvestre
Grounded Acres Organic Farm is a small-scale, mixed produce and livestock farm currently growing on 3 acres in unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territory in Gibsons, on the Sunshine Coast of BC. Hannah and Mel grow over 60 varieties of berries and mixed vegetables and tend to a flock of 100 laying hens. They sell through a weekly farmers’ market, farm stand, box program, and wholesale. The produce they grow and laying hens they raise are certified organic under the BC Certified Organic Program, using agricultural practices that regenerate and contribute to the health of our ecosystem. They are a queer-run farm established in 2021 with values rooted in food justice and creating safer spaces in agriculture for folks who identify as 2SLGTBQ+ and BIPOC.
Mel has been integrating seed production within commercial mixed vegetables farms since 2011. She was part of the original group of dedicated seed producers creating the BC Eco Seed Coop and has been working on multiple breeding lines over the years, most of which are available through the BC Eco Seed Coop.

Owen Taylor
Truelove Seeds
Owen Taylor
Owen Taylor co-founded Truelove Seeds in 2017. The Philadelphia-based seed company is a collaboration between over 70 small-scale urban and rural farms committed to community food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture. Truelove Seeds’ model stems from Owen’s 20+ years of work with food justice and urban agriculture and four years spent learning the art of seed saving while managing William Woys Weaver’s Roughwood Seed Collection.

Brise Tencer
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Brise Tencer
Brise Tencer has dedicated 25+ years to advancing organic food policy, farming, and research. As the Executive Director of OFRF Brise oversees the organization’s research, education, and advocacy initiatives, focusing on supporting farmers and driving policies that champion organic agriculture.
Earlier in her career at OFRF (2000-2006), Brise helped create the Organic Agricultural Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives and secure the recognition of organic farming as a “good farming practice” under federal crop insurance programs. She has also served as Director of Policy and Programs at California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and as a senior lobbyist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she led campaigns linking organic farming to climate resilience and public health.
Brise has served on the boards of several organizations committed to sustainable agriculture, including the National Organic Coalition and the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides.
Chris Thoreau
Chris Thoreau is the treasurer and former Operations Manager for the BC Eco Seed Co-op, based in British Columbia, Canada.
In 2022, Curtis completed his Masters at The University of British Columbia, with his thesis entitled “Opportunities and Constraints to Seed Sovereignty for Organic Vegetable Farmers in British Columbia”. He has a particular interest in small-scale seed company economics and the history of vegetable seed production in British Columbia.
Chris currently grows vegetable and flower seed crops on a small farm in South Burnaby, BC.

Don Tipping
Siskiyou Seeds
Don Tipping
Since 1997 Don Tipping has been farming and offering hands on, practical workshops at Seven Seeds Farm, a small, certified organic family farm in the Siskiyou Mountains of SW Oregon that produces fruits, vegetables, seeds, flowers and herbs, while raising sheep, poultry and people. The farm has been designed to function as a self-contained, life regenerating organism with waste products being recycled and feeding other elements of the system. Lauded as one of the best examples of a small Permaculture farms in the northwest by many, Seven Seeds helps to mentor new farmers through internships and workshops. In 2009 we began Siskiyou Seeds, a bioregional organic seed company that grows and stewards a collection of over 700 open pollinated flower, vegetable and herb seeds and is constantly breeding new varieties that we distribute nationally. Siskiyou Seeds produces about 50% of the seed at our home farm and then sources the remainder from a network of organic seed growers throughout the PNW.
Don is active in the Seed Stewardship movement and educates regionally on seed saving through the Seed Academy, the Student Organic Seed Symposium, Seed Schools and numerous conferences. Don serves on the board of the community development non-profit, A Greater Applegate, the Open Source Seed Initiative and educational organization, Sanctum.

Tim Vos
Southwest Grain Collaborative
Tim Vos
Tim Vos made his living as a working farmer growing certified organic vegetables for many years. He has a PhD in Environmental Studies/Agroecology from UC Santa Cruz and taught classes on the principles of sustainable agriculture, practical farming and regenerative-organic production methods, and environmental ethics. Tim is the managing director and agroecology specialist for the Southwest Grain Collaborative.

Ira Wallace
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Ira Wallace
Ira Wallace is an organic grower, author, speaker, visionary and worker/owner of the cooperative Southern Exposure Seed Exchange where she coordinates outreach, education, and new seed grower contracts. Southern Exposure helps people keep control of their food supply thru seed saving and sustainable gardening. Ira serves on the board of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming. She was named a 2019 Great American Gardener by the American Horticultural Society and is a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Finalist. She is author of the Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast. Her new state specific book series including, Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia, are available online and at booksellers everywhere.

Weijia Wang
University of British Columbia
Weijia Wang
Weijia Wang is the postdoc researcher and project lead on the current CANOVI project, which aims to help strengthen seed security in Canada and promote locally adapted organic vegetable varieties. Wang holds a PhD degree in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Michigan State University.

Daniel Wanjama
Seed Savers Network
Daniel Wanjama
Daniel Wanjama founded Seed Savers Network in Kenya in 2019. Since then, the SSN has grown to more than 87,000 members and established 76 community seed banks.
I have a strong faith in traditional knowledge ability to provide solutions to challenges we are facing in farmers managed seed systems and organic seeds. I am a member of IFOAM SEED PLATFORM, Steering committee member of Global Open-Source Seed Initiative and vice president of the Intercontinental Network of Organic Farmers Organizations. After working more than 20 years in the agriculture sector, I have come to realize that we can not achieve food security without food sovereignty, and we can’t have food sovereignty without seed sovereignty. I am committed to improving access to organic seeds by farmers in Kenya and Africa at large given that there are no organic seed companies in the region.

John Wepking
Meadowlark Organics
John Wepking
John Wepking is co-owner of Meadowlark Organics and Meadowlark Community Mill, a diversified farm and on-farm stone ground flour mill in Ridgeway, Wisconsin. Together with his wife, Halee, and their team of farmers and millers, they farm around a thousand certified organic acres with crops and grass-fed cattle, purchase milling grain from other organic farmers in the Driftless Area, and produce and distribute thousands of pounds of flour weekly. They are passionate about creating direct, value-added markets for grain, helping farmers to maximize their profitability and keep the grains they grow within their local economy and foodshed.

Jared Zystro
Organic Seed Alliance
Jared Zystro
Jared Zystro is Organic Seed Alliance’s research and education director. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in plant breeding and plant genetics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he studied efficient methods of developing new organic sweet corn varieties. Jared has worked in the organic seed industry for over 15 years, managing seed production at two farms and conducting research and education projects with OSA. He currently manages OSA’s regional development in California, conducts participatory breeding projects and variety trials, and teaches farmers about seed production and plant breeding at workshops, conferences, and field days. He lives in the coastal town of Arcata, CA, with his wife and son.
Featured Speakers will continue to be added and are subject to change.