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

“Saved by Seeds is as much a fervent love letter to seeds as an immensely useful how-to manual. It made me want to get out of the kitchen and into my garden.”—Dan Barber, chef and co-owner, Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns; author of The Third Plate“Both practical and philosophical, Saved by Seeds should be required reading for farmers, gardeners, seed savers and plant breeders—but it’s relevant to everyone else, too. I hope people around the world, and especially policymakers, will heed its important lessons: that crop diversity is the basis of all food security; that it must be both preserved and actively expanded; and that since neither corporations nor the governments they control can be trusted to do the vital work of nurturing agrobiodiversity, by necessity it falls to us. And Chris gives us all the tools we need to play our part.”—Nate Kleinman, cofounder, Experimental Farm Network“This is a book to be devoured. Gorgeous writing makes accessible the pleasures and pains of seed saving and plant breeding, as well as the sheer delight of growing food and exploring all the opportunities a curious grower can embrace to be part of restoring and maintaining a vibrant, healthy, and delicious planet. With every page turn I learned something new and inspiring.”—Adam Alexander, author of The Seed Detective and Accidental Seed Heroes“Chris Smith offers a practical manual for the novice seed saver, but also far more. In his charming and jovial style, Smith provides a transformative blueprint rooted in political ecology and multispecies care. This book is a clear, accessible guide for those of us just beginning the work of saving seeds. Smith’s radical commitment to the indeterminacy of trying to control plants and openness to the unexpected surprises held me captivated, and his book offers plenty to even the most expert gardener. A vital toolkit for cultivating community resilience and navigating change, Saved by Seeds honors heritage and ancestral knowledge without becoming trapped in nostalgia, reminding us that saving seeds is a dynamic, open-ended practice of transformative futurity.”—Xan Chacko, assistant teaching professor of science, technology, and society, Brown University“Part history, part how-to, and part experimental record, Saved by Seeds is also wholly an inspiration. It will transform the reader into a gardener, the gardener into a seed saver, the seed saver into a plant breeder, and everyone into an advocate of radical botanical diversity.”—Helen Anne Curry, Kranzberg Professor of the History of Technology, Georgia Tech; author of Endangered Maize“A wonderful invitation to intentionally cross-pollinate your seeds and build true genetic resilience. Chris Smith walks you through the core practices of seed work in a simple, approachable manner delivered through story. This is the book I wish I had when I started my seed journey.”—Dan Brisebois, host, The Seed Farmer Podcast“A deeply thoughtful exploration of what it means to be a seed steward, Saved by Seeds acknowledges the urgency of our times and the implicit need for action without ignoring the complex histories that accompany seeds and their people.Chris takes us on his personal journey into seed stewardship, from his curiosity in seeking varieties that grow well for him in his local region through to his explorations of crop diversity and celebrations of the resilience that can emerge when we choose to shift our priorities away from purity and control. We’re offered practical guidance on the processes of seed keeping, but most importantly a glimpse into the joy and creativity that can be found in the process. This book is an eloquent reminder that fundamentally it is that joy—and that relationship between seeds and people—that needs to be nourished if we are to journey toward an abundant and resilient future.”—Holly Silvester, future resilience seed coordinator, The Gaia Foundation“This book is written for folks like me who dream of ‘seedwork’ as a tool for change and revolution but lack formal education in plant science. It will allow me and others to more easily share our vision of reclaiming the lost arts and sciences of community plant breeding. Saved by Seeds is a step-by-step guide through the work that my ancestors demand of me. I love how Chris translated years of conflict and misunderstanding in language we can use and share. Thanks, Chris, for getting it done.”—Bonnetta Adeeb, cofounder, Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance

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

“Saved by Seeds is as much a fervent love letter to seeds as an immensely useful how-to manual. It made me want to get out of the kitchen and into my garden.”—Dan Barber, chef and co-owner, Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns; author of The Third Plate“Both practical and philosophical, Saved by Seeds should be required reading for farmers, gardeners, seed savers and plant breeders—but it’s relevant to everyone else, too. I hope people around the world, and especially policymakers, will heed its important lessons: that crop diversity is the basis of all food security; that it must be both preserved and actively expanded; and that since neither corporations nor the governments they control can be trusted to do the vital work of nurturing agrobiodiversity, by necessity it falls to us. And Chris gives us all the tools we need to play our part.”—Nate Kleinman, cofounder, Experimental Farm Network“This is a book to be devoured. Gorgeous writing makes accessible the pleasures and pains of seed saving and plant breeding, as well as the sheer delight of growing food and exploring all the opportunities a curious grower can embrace to be part of restoring and maintaining a vibrant, healthy, and delicious planet. With every page turn I learned something new and inspiring.”—Adam Alexander, author of The Seed Detective and Accidental Seed Heroes“Chris Smith offers a practical manual for the novice seed saver, but also far more. In his charming and jovial style, Smith provides a transformative blueprint rooted in political ecology and multispecies care. This book is a clear, accessible guide for those of us just beginning the work of saving seeds. Smith’s radical commitment to the indeterminacy of trying to control plants and openness to the unexpected surprises held me captivated, and his book offers plenty to even the most expert gardener. A vital toolkit for cultivating community resilience and navigating change, Saved by Seeds honors heritage and ancestral knowledge without becoming trapped in nostalgia, reminding us that saving seeds is a dynamic, open-ended practice of transformative futurity.”—Xan Chacko, assistant teaching professor of science, technology, and society, Brown University“Part history, part how-to, and part experimental record, Saved by Seeds is also wholly an inspiration. It will transform the reader into a gardener, the gardener into a seed saver, the seed saver into a plant breeder, and everyone into an advocate of radical botanical diversity.”—Helen Anne Curry, Kranzberg Professor of the History of Technology, Georgia Tech; author of Endangered Maize“A wonderful invitation to intentionally cross-pollinate your seeds and build true genetic resilience. Chris Smith walks you through the core practices of seed work in a simple, approachable manner delivered through story. This is the book I wish I had when I started my seed journey.”—Dan Brisebois, host, The Seed Farmer Podcast“A deeply thoughtful exploration of what it means to be a seed steward, Saved by Seeds acknowledges the urgency of our times and the implicit need for action without ignoring the complex histories that accompany seeds and their people.Chris takes us on his personal journey into seed stewardship, from his curiosity in seeking varieties that grow well for him in his local region through to his explorations of crop diversity and celebrations of the resilience that can emerge when we choose to shift our priorities away from purity and control. We’re offered practical guidance on the processes of seed keeping, but most importantly a glimpse into the joy and creativity that can be found in the process. This book is an eloquent reminder that fundamentally it is that joy—and that relationship between seeds and people—that needs to be nourished if we are to journey toward an abundant and resilient future.”—Holly Silvester, future resilience seed coordinator, The Gaia Foundation“This book is written for folks like me who dream of ‘seedwork’ as a tool for change and revolution but lack formal education in plant science. It will allow me and others to more easily share our vision of reclaiming the lost arts and sciences of community plant breeding. Saved by Seeds is a step-by-step guide through the work that my ancestors demand of me. I love how Chris translated years of conflict and misunderstanding in language we can use and share. Thanks, Chris, for getting it done.”—Bonnetta Adeeb, cofounder, Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance