Executive Director
The Utopian Seed Project
243 Haywood St
Asheville, NC 28748
(w) (864) 569-5101
About
Chris Smith is the executive director of The Utopian Seed Project. Prior to founding The Utopian Seed Project he worked for Sow True Seed and was a board member of The People’s Seed. Chris is a core member of the emerging SE Seed Network and collaborates with The Heirloom Collard Project. Chris is currently serving on the nomination committee for the Slow Food Ark of Taste’s Southern Region. His book, The Whole Okra, won a James Beard Award in 2020 for reference, history and scholarship. Chris has taught seed saving at farming conferences across the Southeast, including at Georgia Organics, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, and Organic Growers School. Chris's CV can be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NFVEjMTdgWTV0nMM3Z3BkaEDt5Vods3EQwxz8--_B_Y/edit?usp=sharing
Projects
| LS24-400 | Research, Education, and Network Development to Support Southeastern Seed Production |
| OS22-159 | Researching Colocasia esculenta (aka Taro) in the Southeast as a Sustainable and Alternate Crop |
| EDS21-30 | Saving Seed for Resilient Local Systems: An online, video based course on saving seed from the Utopian Seed Project |