Civic seeds: new institutions for seed systems and communities—a 2016 survey of California seed libraries

Seed libraries (SLs) are institutions that support the creation of semi-formal seed systems, but are often intended to address larger issues that are part of the “food movement” in the global north. Over 100 SLs are reported present in California. The author describes a functional framework for studying and comparing seed systems, and uses that to investigate the social and biological characteristics of California SLs in 2016 and how they are contributing to alternative seed systems based on interviews with 45 SL managers.