Community Seed Projects
The Next Step for Local Food
Let's create crops uniquely adapted to our local landscapes, reflecting the spirit and resilience of our present-day communities.
Whether you're a gardener, seed steward, farmer, or someone passionate about eating local food and building resilience in your community, we invite you to join us in creating a model for transitioning toward a sustainable food system.
Over the last hundred years, gardeners and farmers have become increasingly marginalized in the selection and control of food crops. This has put increasing control in the hands of for-profit corporations, leading to the 95% loss of crop genetic diversity in the US. This leaves gardeners vulnerable to shocks to the global supply chain, a changing climate, reduced flavor, and nutrient density in modern varieties, and seeds that don’t thrive when conditions aren’t ideal for them.
In 2024–2025, with financial support of the Foundation for Sustainability and Innovation, we:
- Distributed 2,000+customized, printed seed-saving guides ("zines") and seeds to 24 seed libraries in 12 states across the US.
- Directly engaged over 250 people in California in saving and sharing seeds through workshops and seed library events.
- Formed new partnerships with schools and Land Together, a prison garden program.
We prioritized libraries in areas where we had regionally grown seeds from our Farmer Grant Program.
We’re now scaling up: increasing seed production, and printing guides in larger batches to meet growing demand.
Do you want to start a project? We are collecting information and will be in touch over the coming months about sending you seeds and guides for the 2026 growing season.
Fill out this form to get on our waiting list.
Projects
Mendocino County Seed Circle
Mendocino Coast, CA
Adopt a Clackamas Squash Pilot Project
Portland, Oregon
Round Valley Landraces Project
Round Valley, CA
East Bay Seed Project
Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, CA
South LA Seed Circle
Los Angeles, California