About

CHRIS SMITH

PROJECT MANAGER, WRITER

Chris Smith is a seed saver and permaculturist who loves to write. He is executive director of the Utopian Seed Project, a crop-trialing nonprofit working to celebrate diversity in food and farming. Chris is a co-organizer of The Heirloom Collard Project. His book, The Whole Okra, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2020, and he is the co-host of The Okra Pod Cast.

DR. CYNTHIA GREENLEE

EDITOR, WRITER

Cynthia R. Greenlee is a born-and-bred North-South Carolinian. She’s a historian, editor, and essayist who writes about Southern and U.S. history, food, pop culture, reproductive health, and whatever piques her fancy. She’s the winner of a James Beard Award for excellence in foodways writing and also co-editor of The Echoing Ida Collection, an anthology of Black writing inspired by Ida B. Wells and the desire for social transformation. Learn More.

MELISSA DESA

ART DIRECTOR

Melissa is a nonprofit leader, seed steward, artist, educator and ecologist living in Gainesville, Florida. She is co-founder and SeedEO of the nonprofit Working Food with a focus on seed stewardship as a means to grow the local food community. She is a co-organizer for the Heirloom Collard Project, a collard grower and admirer, and wishful seed saver (they don’t save so well in the subtropics of Florida).

TALIA MOORE

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Talia Moore (they/she) is a multimedia storyteller, designer, artist and
community organizer from San
Francisco, California, living in
Brooklyn, New York. Their work
centers the stories of Black and queer
communities while highlighting the
intersections of food sovereignty, art
and culture.